AFRICAN UNION’S CONTRIBUTION AND COLLABORATION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO SETTLING AND MINIMIZING CONFLICTS.
African Union which was formerly the Organization of African Unity is a continental body consisting of 55 member states that make up the countries of the African continent. It was officially launched on 9th July, 2002 in Durban, South Africa, marking the demise of its predecessor (Organization of Africa Unity) after its 39years of existence. The OAU was formed in 1963 when many African leaders wanted to accelerate the process of European decolonization and independence for a new nation.
The African Union is guided by its vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in global arena.
The objectives of African Union are: to achieve greater unity, cohesion and solidarity between the African countries and nations, to defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its member states and to accelerate the political and social economic integration of the continent.
The names of African Union in other official languages are: French-Union Africaine, Portuguese-Uniao Africana, Somali-Midawga Afrika, Spanish-Union Africana, Swahili-Umojo wa Afrika. The motto of African Union is ‘A United and Strong Africa,’ and its anthem is “Let Us All Unite and Celebrate Together”. Its political centres are Addis Ababa and Johannesburg with Lagos as the largest city. Official languages are Arabic, French, Spanish, Somali, and Swahili.
The first chairperson of African Union is Muamer Al Gathafi and the current chair person is Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt Feb 10, 2019. Other leaders are: the Commission chair – Moussa Faki and the parliamentary president as Roger Nkodo Dang.
The most important decisions of the African Union 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 African Union’s Secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa.
The Transition from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to African Union (AU)
The advent of African Union (AU) can be seen or rather described as an event of great magnitude in the institutional evolution of the continent. On 9.9.1999, the heads of state and government of the organization of African Unity (OAU) issued a Declaration (the Sirte Declaration) calling for the establishment of an African Union, with a view, inter alia, to accelerating the process of integration in the continent to enable it play its rightful role in the global economy while addressing multifaceted social, economic and political problems compounded as they are by certain negative aspects of globalization.
African Union came as a result of a quest for unity, economic, and social development, African countries under the banner of the OAU, have taken various initiatives and made substantial progress in many areas which paved the way for the establishment of the AU.
The OAU initiatives paved the way for the birth of AU. In July 1999, the Assembly decided to convene an extraordinary session to expedite the process of economic and political integration in the continent. Since then, four (4) summits have been held leading to the official launching of the AU.
The Sirte Extraordinary Session (1999) decided to establish an AU.
The Lome Summit (2000) adopted the constitutive Act of the Union.
The Lusaka Summit (2001) drew the road map for the implementation of the AU.
The Durban Summit (2002) launched the AU and convened the first Assembly of the Heads of states of the African Union.
The transition from Organization of African Unity(OAU) to African Union(AU) was clearly intended to transform the institutional framework for realizing the Pan-African vision and mission from what some critics regarded as a mere ‘talking shop’ to an action oriented forum. It is therefore useful to take stock of the achievements of AU in its first decade and, this can be seen in the main goals of the AU which are peace and prosperity.
The African Union has been effective in boosting cooperation and unity within Africa, putting its efforts towards diminishing conflict and boosting democracy.
The AU has clearly had reasonable successes through its direct contribution and collaboration with the international community to settling and minimizing conflicts in some of the region’s hotbeds, such as trouble spots in the Sudan, resolving post-election violent conflicts in Cote d’lvoire and Kenya, and forcing military coup-makers to hand back power to civilian regimes, unlike the OAU which followed a doctrine of ‘non-interference’ the AU has the authority through decisions of its Peace and Security Council to interfere in member states to promote peace and protect democracy, including deploying military force in situations in which genocide and crimes against humanity are being committed. The AU’s unique voluntary ‘Peer Review Mechanism’ by which individual member states agree to be assessed by a team of experts drawn from other states is designed to encourage democracy and good governance.
In the pursuit of prosperity in the region, the AU has in place declarations and institutions to promote and support economic integration among its 54 member states as the pathway to sustainable development.
The African Union like any other organization or institution have a major challenge confronting it and its leaders which is how to respond to the job opportunities and livelihood aspirations of Africa’s youth who account for as much as three-quarters of the labour force in most countries; many have gone to schools and are graduates to become productive members of society, but end up being jobless. High and still rising levels of unemployment among young people in Africa prompted heads of state at the AU Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to adopt a ‘Declaration on Creating Employment for Empowerment’.
The AU rightly recognizes the demographic dividend to be reaped from the region’s youthful population structure, as numerous countries in Asia have benefited from over the past two decades, and, hence, member states are encouraged to link their growth performance and development pattern to the creation of employment and socio-economic opportunities especially for young people.
AU pays attention to international development cooperation and relationship with international partners than has hitherto been the case and to that regard, the headquarters of AU is now housed in a magnificent multi-million dollar complex in Addis Ababa that has been provided by the China as a ‘gift to Africa’ because of China’s eve growing presence in Africa, which the AU appears to regard as a positive factor.
The vision of a new, forward-looking, dynamic and integrated Africa will be fully realized through relentless struggle on several fronts and as a long term endeavour. The African Union has shifted focus from supporting liberation movements in the erstwhile African territories under colonialism and apartheid, as envisaged by the Organization of African Unity since 1963 and the Constitutive Act, to an Organization spear-heading Africa’s development and integration whose mission is that of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in global arena.

Jennifer Sunday.
Post Graduate Student of
Kaduna State University.

Nice write-up