African Union (AU)

Background Note

Name, address, and date of establishment

Name: African Union (AU)

Address: Roosevelt Road, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Phone: + 251-115-51-30-36
Website: www.africa-union.org
Establishment: 2002 (successor to the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which
was established in 1963)

Background

The African Union (AU) was established on July 9, 2002 as a successor to the
Organization of African Unity (OAU)1. This followed a Declaration by the Heads of State
and Government of the OAU (the Sirte Declaration) on September 9, 1999, which called
for the establishment of an African Union to accelerate the process of integration in the
continent so that Africa could play its due role in the global economy.

Among the objectives of the African Union are:

 to accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent;

 to promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the
continent and its peoples;
 to achieve peace and security in Africa; and
 promote democratic institutions, good governance and human rights.

Working languages of the African Union are Arabic, English, French, and Portuguese. A
Protocol adopted in 2003 but not yet in force added Spanish, Swahili and "any other
African language" and termed all six "official" (rather than "working") languages of the

1
The Organization of African Unity (OAU) was established on May 25, 1963 with the following objectives:
to rid the continent of the remaining vestiges of colonization and apartheid; to promote unity and
solidarity among African States; to coordinate and intensify cooperation for development; to safeguard
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Member States; and to promote international cooperation
within the framework of the U.N.

1
African Union. Founded in 2001, the African Academy of Languages promotes the usage
and perpetuation of African languages among African people.

 Member States

The 54 Member States of the African Union include: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana,
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Comoros, Côte
d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt,
Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius,
Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Western Sahara (SADR), São Tomé and
Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland,
Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

South Sudan is the most recent member, having joined on July 27, 2011. Former
member Morocco left the African Union’s predecessor (the OAU) in 1984 2

Suspended members of the African Union following coup d'états or political crises (as of
September 2011) include the following three countries: Guinea; Mauritania; and
Madagascar. Previously suspended states which have recently been re-admitted to the
African Union include: Eritrea (January 2011), Niger (March 2011) and Ivory Coast
(reinstated in April 2011).

 Structure of the African Union

The AU, similar to the European 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.

O Assembly: Highest decision-making organ of the AU, composed of all the

heads of state or government of AU member states (currently chaired by
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo from Equatorial Guinea, elected at
the 11th ordinary meeting of the Assembly in January 2011)
O Pan African Parliament: Representative body of the AU, composed of five
members per country including at least one woman among each national
delegation (265 members in total) elected by the national parliaments of
the AU member states. (The current President is Idriss Ndele Moussa.)
O 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 of
2
Morocco left the OAU, because many of the AU member states supported the Sahrawi nationalist
Polisario Front's Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in its attempt to separate

2
 member states to the AU; and the Economic, Social, and Cultural Council
(ECOSOCC), a civil society consultative body.
O AU Commission: Secretariat of the AU (currently chaired by Mr. Jean Ping
of Gabon).
O African Court of Justice: Body that adjudicates in civil cases and is
responsible for human right protections;
O African Court of Human and People´s Rights: Body with jurisdiction over
all disputes and requests submitted to it in respect of interpretation and
implementation of African Charter on Human and People’s Rights;
O Peace and Security Council: Body with mandate to impose sanctions in
case of an unconstitutional change of government of an AU member
state and to "take initiatives and action it deems appropriate" in response
to potential or actual conflicts in a same manner as the UN Security
Council. In fact, it plays an increasingly high-profile role in peacekeeping,
since it has carried out several interventions in Burundi (2003), the Darfur
region of Sudan (2004), Somalia (2007) and Comoros (2008). It also
provides for establishment of a Standby Force as a permanent African
peacekeeping force.
O Financial Institutions: African Central Bank (Abuja, Nigeria); African
Monetary Fund (Yaounde, Cameroon); and African Investment Bank
Tripoli, Libya.

 AU Summits

The AU holds Summits of Heads of State and Government twice a year, in January and July. In
January 2011, more than 30 African Heads of State and Government participated in the 16 th
Summit under the theme “Towards Greater Unity and Integration through Shared Values”. The
17th AU Summit will take place in July 2011 under the theme of “Accelerating Youth
Empowerment for Sustainable Development”.

 Secretary General

Mr. Jean Ping is currently the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union. He
was born in November 1942 in Omboué, Gabon.

From 1972 Mr. Ping worked at UNESCO in Paris in the Department

of External Relations. From 1978 to 1984, he was Permanent
Representative of Gabon to UNESCO. His diplomatic and political
experience earned him the appointment by the Head of State, to
the post of Director of the civilian staff in Gabon, a post he occupied
from 1984- 1990. Mr. Ping has served as Minister of Information,
Posts and Telecommunications, Tourism and Leisure, Minister of
Mines, Energy and Water Resources, Minister of Foreign Affairs,

3
Cooperation and Francophony, Minister of State and Minister of Planning, Environment
and Tourism between 1990 and 1999 Senior Minister within the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs until 2007, when he was named Vice Prime Minister of Gabon, until his
appointment at the African Union. He has led the Gabonese delegation to many African
and international forums especially those of UNESCO, OAU, AU, Non Aligned
Movement, Organization of Islamic Conference and the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries. He was the President of the 59th Session of the United Nations
General Assembly.

 Foreign relations of the African Union

The AU represents the interests of African peoples at large in intergovernmental

organizations; 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 maintains special diplomatic
representation with the United States and the European Union.

The Constitutive Act of the AU declares that it shall "invite and encourage the full
participation of the African diaspora as an important part of our Continent, in the
building of the African Union". The African Union Government has defined the African
diaspora as "consisting of people of African origin living outside the continent,
irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the
development of the continent and the building of the African Union".

 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance

The members of the African Union at the 8 th session of their General Assembly adopted
the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
on 30 January 2007. The Charter is not yet in force, however, as it needs as least 15
ratifications. To date, 35 of the 53 AU members have signed the Charter but only three
countries have ratified it, namely: Ethiopia; Mauritania and Sierra Leone. The slow
process of signature and ratification of the Charter is a concern for the AU, which would
like to have a comprehensive, binding instrument to serve as the permanent basis for
deepening democracy. Currently the Lomé Declaration of 2000 is in place that
envisages action only in the case of formal coup d’états, or formal interruption of
democratic processes. The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance
was drafted to overcome the shortcomings of the Lomé Declaration.

As the Charter has not yet come into force, Articles 23–26 of the Charter were put into a
separate decision that was adopted in January 2010 by the AU members. This decision
sets out mechanisms to deal with cases involving the abuse of democratic processes

4
such as the manipulation of national Constitutions. Additionally, the January 2010
decision bars any author of a coup d’état from being a candidate in a future election.

The AU has a standing mandate to deploy electoral observation missions and unlike the
OAS, does not need a request to observe elections. An institutionalized process exists
within the organization for electoral observation of legislative and presidential elections,
with an annual budget allocated for this purpose. If the funds are not sufficient in any
given year, it is then possible to turn to the member states for additional funding. An
Electoral Assistance Unit was established within the AU in 2008, one of whose aims is to
make elections in the African region free, fair and peaceful.

 Regional conflicts and AU peace-keeping operations

One of the objectives of the AU is to "promote peace, security, and stability on the
continent". Among its principles is the 'peaceful resolution of conflicts among Member
States of the Union through such appropriate means as may be decided upon by the
Assembly'. The primary body charged with implementing these objectives and principles
is the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC). The PSC has the power, among other things,
to authorize peace support missions, to impose sanctions in case of unconstitutional
change of government, and to "take initiatives and action it deems appropriate" in
response to potential or actual conflicts. The PSC is a decision-making body in its own
right, and its decisions are binding on member states.

Since it first met in 2004, the PSC has been active in relation to the crises in Burundi, the
Darfur region of Sudan, Comoros, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire
and other countries. It has adopted resolutions creating AU peacekeeping operations in
Burundi, Somalia, Darfur and the Comoros, and has imposed sanctions against persons
undermining peace and security in certain cases (such as travel bans and asset freezes
against the leaders of the rebellion in Comoros). The Council is in the process of
overseeing the establishment of a "standby force" to serve as a permanent African
peacekeeping force.

Article 4(h) of the Constitutive Act Constitutive Act of the PSC recognizes the right of the
Union to intervene in member states in circumstances of war crimes, genocide and
crimes against humanity. Any decision to intervene in a member state under this Article
will be made by the AU Assembly on the recommendation of the PSC.

 Selected Conflicts being dealt with by the AU

i) Zimbabwe

5
The political crisis in Zimbabwe has been debated both by the African Union and by the
Southern African Development Community (SADC). At the AU level, the situation in
Zimbabwe has been a controversial focus of discussions in the Executive Council of the
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, where human rights abuses in
Zimbabwe have been discussed since the early 2000s. Zimbabwe was also a major topic
of debate at the 11th AU Summit held in Sharm el Shaik, Egypt, in July 2008, with some
states, including Senegal, Benin, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Botswana, Nigeria and Kenya
backing strong AU action against Zimbabwe in light of the problematic second round of
presidential elections held in June. Among others, Raila Odinga, the Prime Minister of
Kenya, called for suspension of Zimbabwe from the AU. However, the Summit
eventually adopted a resolution that did not apply any sanctions against the
government of Robert Mugabe but merely urged the two main parties in Zimbabwe to
negotiate a solution to their differences.

ii) Darfur, Sudan; South Sudan

In response to the ongoing Darfur conflict in Sudan, the AU deployed 7,000

peacekeepers in 2003/2004 to Darfur, most from Rwanda and Nigeria. However,
monitoring an area roughly the size of France made it difficult for the AU to sustain an
effective mission. NATO operations helped the AU expand its peacekeeping mission in
Darfur from mid-2005 to end December 2007 by providing airlift for the transport of
additional peacekeepers and by training AU personnel, but did not provide any combat
troops. NATO support ended in January 2008 when peacekeeping operations were fully
transferred to the joint United Nations/African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). The
AU mission was merged with the U.N. Mission in Darfur in October 2007 and the joint
peace-keeping operation is still in place. In July 2009 the African Union ceased
cooperation with the International Criminal Court, refusing to recognize the
international arrest warrant it had issued against Sudan's leader, Omar al-Bashir, who
was indicted in 2008 for War crimes. Following the successful referendum in February
2011 for the independence of South Sudan, the African Union welcomed its admission
as the 54th AU Member State on 27 July 2011 in accordance with the provisions of
Article 29 (1) and (2) of the AU Constitutive Act (AU Press Release.
http://www.au.int/en/content/african-union-welcomes-south-sudan-54th-member-
state-union

iii) Somalia

From the early 1990s until recently, Somalia has been without a functioning central
government after the warlords toppled the government led by Siad Barre, creating a
civil war that broke out in 1991. A peace agreement aimed at ending this civil war was
signed in 2006 after many years of peace talks. However, the new government was
almost immediately threatened by further violence. To temporarily shore up the new
government's military base, AU soldiers were sent as part of a peacekeeping force in

6
March 2007. Currently the AU peacekeeping force in Somalia is 9,000 strong, supplied
with troops from Uganda and Burundi. In September 2011 the AU announced that it
expects to receive 3,000 extra troops over the next six months from Djibouti and Sierra
Leone to reinforce its efforts. The AU peacekeepers supporting Somalia's weak-U.N.
backed government are trying to reoccupy territories held by the Islamist insurgents and
have announced that they are in control of 60 percent of the capital, Mogadishu. But
the situation of the country remains precarious and is very much beset by internal strife.
(BBC News Africa, 27 September 2011)

iv) Libya

Unlike the League of Arab States, the African Union did not support the 'no-fly' zone
resolution of the United Nations, adopted on March 17th 2011. The head of the African
Union, Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, expressed his support for
Gaddafi and demanded an end to foreign interference into what he has called an
“internal Libyan problem”. Despite this position, the three African countries sitting on
the UN Security Council (Gabon, Nigeria and South Africa) voted in favor of the UN
Resolution which authorizes member states “to take all necessary measures….to protect
civilians”.

A Special Committee on Libya was established within the AU before the airstrikes began,
composed of five African heads of state. AU Members opposed the military action
against Libya and advocated instead a peaceful solution to the crisis, with the AU Special
Committee developing a political roadmap, including a cease-fire; cooperation from
Libyan authorities to guarantee safe passage for humanitarian aid; protection of foreign
nationals; and a dialogue with the opposition on the adoption and implementation of
political reforms. Following the fall of previous President Col. Muammar Gaddafi, the
AU recognized Libya's interim leaders the National Transitional Council (NTC) as the
country's de facto government, in September 2011, and stated that it was ready to help
the NTC in its efforts to build an inclusive government. AU Head, President of Equatorial
Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, stated "The African Union stands ready to support
the Libyan people as they rebuild their country towards a united, democratic, peaceful
and prosperous Libya”. (BBC News Africa, 20 September 2011).