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The African Union

Monday, 1 February 2016 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Africa / Afrika
Category/Kategorie: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 54 countries in Africa. The only African state that is not a member is Morocco, due to the status of the Western Sahara, although Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic have had their memberships suspended due to the recent coup d’état and ongoing civil war respectively. The AU was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa and launched on 9 July 2002 in South Africa, with the aim of replacing the Organisation 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, Ethiopia. The objectives of the AU are:

• To achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and Africans.
• To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States.
• To accelerate the political and social-economic integration of the continent.
• To promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples.
• To encourage international cooperation, taking due account of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• To promote peace, security, and stability on the continent.
• To promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance.
• 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.
• To establish the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international negotiations.
• To promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels as well as the integration of African economies.
• To promote co-operation in all fields of human activity to raise the living standards of African peoples.
• To coordinate and harmonize the policies between the existing and future Regional Economic Communities for the gradual attainment of the objectives of the Union.
• To advance the development of the continent by promoting research in all fields, in particular in science and technology.
• 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 Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe. 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. 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”.

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)

The membership of many of the communities overlaps, and their rationalisation has been under discussion for several years – and formed the theme of the 2006 Banjul summit. At the July 2007 Accra summit the Assembly finally decided to adopt a Protocol on Relations between the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities. This protocol is intended to facilitate the harmonisation of policies and ensure compliance with the Abuja Treaty and Lagos Plan of Action time frames.

Read more on African Union and Wikipedia African Union (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.

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