The African
Union (AU) is a continental
union consisting
of 54 countries in Africa. It
was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia and launched on 9 July 2002 in South
Africa, with the aim
of replacing the Organization
of African Unity (OAU). The
most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of
the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government
of its member states. The AU's secretariat, the African
Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa.
The objectives of the AU are:
1. To achieve
greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and Africans.
2. To defend
the sovereignty, territorial
integrity and
independence of its Member States.
3. To
accelerate the political and social-economic integration of the continent.
4. To promote
and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent and
its peoples.
5. To encourage
international cooperation, taking due account of the Charter of
the United Nations and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
6. To promote
peace, security, and stability on the continent.
7. To promote
democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good
governance.
8. To promote
and protect human and peoples' rights in accordance with the African
Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and other
relevant human rights
instruments.
9. To establish
the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its rightful role
in the global economy and in international negotiations.
10. To promote sustainable
development at the economic,
social and cultural levels as well as
the integration of African economies.
11. To promote
co-operation in all fields of human activity to raise the living
standards of African
peoples.
12. To
coordinate and harmonize the policies between the existing and future Regional
Economic Communities for the
gradual attainment of the objectives of the Union.
13. To advance
the development of the continent by promoting research in all fields, in
particular in science and technology.
14. To work with
relevant international partners in the eradication of preventable diseases and
the promotion of good health on the continent.
The African
Union is made up of both political and administrative bodies. The highest
decision-making organ is the Assembly of
the African Union, made up of all the heads of state or government of member
states of the AU. The Assembly is chaired by Idriss Déby,
President of Chad. The AU
also has a representative body, the Pan African
Parliament, which consists of 265 members elected by the national legislatures
of the AU member states. Its president is Bethel
Nnaemeka Amadi.
Other political institutions of the
AU include
· The Executive
Council, made up of foreign
ministers, which prepares decisions for the Assembly;
· The Permanent
Representatives Committee, made up of the ambassadors to Addis Ababa of AU member
states; and
· The Economic,
Social, and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), a
civil society consultative body.
HEADQUARTER
The
main administrative capital of the African Union is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
where the African Union Commission is headquartered. A new headquarters
complex, the AU
Conference Center and Office Complex (AUCC), was
inaugurated on 28 January 2012, during the 18th AU summit. The complex
was built by China State
Construction Engineering Corporation as a gift
from the Chinese
government, and accommodates, among other facilities, a 2,500-seat plenary hall
and a 20-story office tower. The tower is 99.9 meters high to signify the date
9 September 1999, when the Organization
of African Unity voted to
become the African Union.
Role of African Union
One of the
key debates in relation to the achievement of greater continental integration
is the relative priority that should be given to integration of the continent
as a unit in itself or to integration of the sub-regions. The 1980 Lagos Plan
of Action for the Development of Africa and the 1991
treaty to establish the African Economic Community (also referred to as the
Abuja Treaty), proposed the creation of Regional
Economic Communities (RECs) as
the basis for African integration, with a timetable for regional and then
continental integration to follow.
Currently,
there are eight RECs recognised by the AU, each established under a separate
regional treaty. They are:
·
the Arab Maghreb
Union (UMA)
·
the Common Market for Eastern
and Southern Africa (COMESA)
·
the Community of Sahel-Saharan
States (CEN-SAD)
·
the East African Community (EAC)
·
the Economic Community of
Central African States (ECCAS)
·
the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS)
·
the Intergovernmental
Authority on Development (IGAD)
·
the Southern Africa
Development Community (SADC)
Foreign
Relations :
The
individual member states of the African Union coordinate foreign policy through
this agency, in addition to conducting their own international
relations on a
state-by-state basis. The AU represents the interests of African peoples at
large in intergovernmental
organisations (IGOs); for
instance, it is a permanent
observer at the United
Nations General Assembly. Both the African Union and the United Nations work in
tandem to address issues of common concerns in various areas. The African Union
Mission in United Nations aspires to serve as a bridge between the two
Organizations.
Membership
of the AU overlaps with other IGOs and occasionally these third-party
organizations and the AU will coordinate matters of public policy. The African
Union maintains special diplomatic representation with the United
States and the European
Union. In 2016, the Union introduced continent-wide
passports.
