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12-01-2011, 09:27 AM

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African Union

Introduction:
The African Union is a union consisting of 53 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to 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, Ethiopia. [1]
History of the African Union:
Its origins are the Union of African States, an early confederation that was established by Kwame Nkrumah in the 1960s, as well as subsequent attempts to unite Africa, including the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which was established on May 25, 1963, and the African Economic Community in 1981. Critics argued that the OAU in particular did little to protect the rights and liberties of African citizens from their own political leaders, often dubbing it the "Dictators' Club". The African Union is intended to be a geo-political entity covering the entirety of the African continent.
The idea of creating the AU was revived in the mid-1990s under the leadership of Libyan head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi: the heads of state and government of the OAU
[1] "Launch of the African Union, 9 July 2002: Address by the chairperson of the AU, President Thabo Mbeki". ABSA Stadium, Durban, South Africa
issued the Sirte Declaration (named after Sirte, in Libya) on September 9, 1999, calling for the establishment of an African Union. The Declaration was followed by summits at Lomé in 2000, when the Constitutive Act of the African Union was adopted, and at Lusaka in 2001, when the plan for the implementation of the African Union was adopted. During the same period, the initiative for the establishment of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) was also established.
The first attempts to create a politically unified state encompassing the whole of the African continent were made by European colonial powers in the nineteenth century, intent on harnessing the vast natural resources and huge amount of manpower the continent had to offer to their Empires. However the strong rivalry between European powers such as Great Britain, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany and Spain and Portugal, meant the reality soon dawned that no one nation was powerful enough to outdo all the others, and take complete control of the continent. [2]
Instead, they carved the continent up between them, scrambling for control of as much territory as possible, and attempting to prevent their rivals from obtaining favorable regions. The European powers essentially maintained control of their territories as colonies until the second half of the twentieth century, when changes in European policy and thinking, led to releasing of control over their African colonies, and the creation of independent nations across the continent took place between the 1950s and 1970s.
Objectives of the African Union:
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 Bingu wa Mutharika, leader of Malawi, elected at the tenth ordinary meeting of the Assembly in January 2009. The AU also has a representative body, the Pan African Parliament, which consists of 265 members elected by the national parliaments of the AU member states. Its president is Idriss Ndele Moussa. Among the objectives of the AU's leading institutions are:
• to accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent;
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[2] African Union replaces dictators' club, BBC, 8 July 2002
• 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
• To promote democratic institutions, good governance and human rights.
The AU covers the entire continent except for the Iles Eparses, Reunion, Mayotte, and Morocco, because that state opposes the membership of Western Sahara as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. However, Morocco has a special status within the AU and benefits from the services available to all AU states from the institutions of the AU, such as the African Development Bank. Moroccan delegates also participate at important AU functions, and negotiations continue to try to resolve the conflict with the Polisario Front in Tindouf, Algeria and the parts of Western Sahara.
The AU's first military intervention in a member state was the May 2003 deployment of a peacekeeping force of soldiers from South Africa, Ethiopia, and Mozambique to Burundi to oversee the implementation of the various agreements. AU troops were also deployed in Sudan for peacekeeping in the Darfur conflict, before the mission was handed over to the United Nations on January 1st, 2008 UNAMID. The AU has also sent a peacekeeping mission to Somalia, of which the peacekeeping troops are from Uganda and Burundi.
The AU has adopted a number of important new documents establishing norms at continental level, to supplement those already in force when it was created. These include the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (2003), the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (2007), the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and its associated Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance
Geography of the African Union:
Member states of the African Union (AU) cover almost the entirety of continental Africa and several off-shore islands. Consequently, the geography of the African Union is wildly diverse, including the world's largest hot desert (the Sahara) [3], huge jungles and savannas, and the world's longest river (the Nile).
[3] The majority of Western Sahara is currently under military occupation by Morocco, with the rest administered by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR.)
The AU presently has an area of 29,922,059 km² (18,592,705 mi²), with 24,165 km² (15,015 mi²) of coastline. The vast majority of this area is on continental Africa, while the only significant territory off the mainland is the island of Madagascar (the world's fourth largest), accounting for slightly less than 2% of the total.

Figure (1) – African Union Members

Economy of the African Union:
The combined states of the African Union (AU) constitute the world's 17th largest economy with a nominal GDP of US$500 billion, ranking after the Netherlands. By measuring GDP by PPP, the African Union's economy totals US$1.515 billion, ranking it 11th after Russia. At the same time, they have a combined total debt of US$200 billion.
The AU has only 2% of the world's international trade. Because over 90% of international trade consists of currency futures[citation needed], Africa's 2%, however, actually makes up the bulk of real commodity traded worldwide, including about 70% of the world's strategic minerals, including gold and aluminum. Africa is also a large market for American, European and Chinese industry.
The AU future confederation's goals include the creation of a free trade area, a customs union, a single market, a central bank, and a common currency, thereby establishing economic and monetary union. The current plan is to establish an African Economic Community with a single currency by 2023.
Languages and Education of the African Union:
The languages of the African Union (AU) are languages used by citizens within the member states of the AU. The Union has defined all languages of Africa as official, and currently uses Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Swahili and Spanish. The prominence of Arabic in many African countries is due to the Arab expansion into Africa from the 7th century, with subsequent Arabization of local African populations. Indo-European languages were introduced during the period of European colonialism in the continent [4].
In 2001, the AU created the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN) to harmonize the various languages across the continent and safeguard any that are on the verge of becoming extinct. To that end, the AU declared 2006 the Year of African Languages.
Many African states have low literacy levels, in part as a product of poor educational infrastructure and several regional and ethnic languages lacking an alphabet or writing system at all or until the twentieth century. the United Nations Development Program is the United Nations agency responsible for collecting information regarding demographics such as literacy. In 2005, the Program ranked several African states at the bottom of its rankings. One exception to the tendency toward illiteracy in Africa is the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. This community is estimated to have 90% literacy, making them second only to the Boers of South Africa as the most literate African nation.
Government of the African Union
The principal topic for debate at the July 2007 AU summit held in Accra, Ghana, was the creation of a Union Government, with the aim of moving towards a United States of Africa. A study on the Union Government was adopted in late 2006, and proposes various options for "completing" the African Union project. There are divisions among African states

[4] Article 11, Protocol on Amendments to the Constitutive Act of the African Union
on the proposals, with some (notably Libya) following a maximalist view leading to a common government with an AU army; and others (especially the southern African states) supporting rather a strengthening of the existing structures, with some reforms to deal with administrative and political challenges in making the AU Commission and other bodies truly effective.
Following a heated debate in Accra, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government agreed in the form of a declaration to review the state of affairs of the AU with a view to determining its readiness towards a Union Government. In particular, the Assembly agreed to:
• Accelerate the economic and political integration of the African continent, including the formation of a Union Government of Africa;
• Conduct an audit of the institutions and organs of the AU; review the relationship between the AU and the RECs; find ways to strengthen the AU and elaborate a timeframe to establish a Union Government of Africa.
The declaration lastly noted the ‘importance of involving the African peoples, including Africans in the Diaspora, in the processes leading to the formation of the Union Government.’
Following this decision, a panel of eminent persons was set up to conduct the ‘audit review’. The review team began its work on 1 September 2007. The review was presented to the Assembly of Heads of State and Government at the January 2008 summit in Addis Ababa. No final decision was taken on the recommendations, however, and a committee of ten heads of state was appointed to consider the review and report back to the July 2008 summit to be held in Egypt. At the July 2008 summit, a decision was once again deferred, for a 'final' debate at the January 2009 summit to be held in Addis Ababa.
Regional conflicts of the African Union:
One of the objectives of the AU is to "promote peace, security, and stability on the continent". Among its principles is '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 Peace and Security Council. 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. [5]
Since it first met in 2004, the PSC has been active in relation to the crises in Darfur, Comoros, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire and other countries. It has adopted resolutions creating the AU peacekeeping operations in Somalia and Darfur, and imposing sanctions against persons undermining peace and security (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
Foreign relations of the African Union:
The individual member states of the African Union (AU) 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 organizations (IGO's) [6]; 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. [7]
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.

[5] 'The African Standby Force. An Update on Progress, Institute for Security Studies, South Africa, March 2008.
[6] Article 3(f) of the Constitutive Act.
[7] Article 4(e) of the Constitutive Act