Essays

The African Union (AU) is intended to be a geo-political entity covering the entirety of the African continent. Its origin can be traced to the Union of african States, established by came Nkrumah in the 1960s and the Organization of African Unity (OAU), established in 1963. The African Economic Community, established in 1981, was also a precursor to the African Union.

The idea of creating the AU was revived in the mid-1990s under the leadership of Libyan head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi. The Sine Declaration issued by the heads of state and government of the OAU In 1999, called for the establishment of an African Union. The declaration was followed by summits at Lome in 2000, when the constitutive Act of the African Union was adopted, and a( 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 (NLPAD) was also established.

The OAU was disbanded in July 2002 by its last chairperson, south African President Thabo Mbeki, and peplaced by the African Union (abbreviated AU in English, and UA in its other official languages.) The membership of AU was inherited from the OAU. Which represented almost the entire African continent? Currently, the AU has the .same 53 member states as when it was founded. 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. I In AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis M.iki. Ethiopia.

The objectives of the AU 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 to promote democratic institutions, good governance and human rights.

The African Union is made up of both political and administrative Bodies.  The highest decision-making organ of the African Union is the Assembly, made up of all the heads of state or government of member States of the AU. 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. The other political institutions of the AU are the Executive Council, made up of foreign ministers, whirl) prepares decisions for the Assembly; the Permanent Representative! 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.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is the main administrative capital of the African Union and it headquarters the African Union Commission. Other AU structures are hosted by different member states: for example, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights is based in Banjul. The Gambia; and the NEPAD and APRM Secretariats as well as the Pan-African Parliament are in Midrand, South Africa.

Except for Morocco, which opposes the membership of Western Sahara as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, all countries of the African continent are the members of the AU. However, Morocco it given a special status within the AU and it 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 are being held to try to resolve the conflict with the Polisario Front'in Tindouf, Algeria and parts of Western Sahara. Recently, however, the AU has suspended three countries from its membership—Guinea and Mauritania after coup d'etat in both countries in 2008 and Madagascar after its 2009 political crisis,

In May 2003, the AU deployed a peacekeeping force to oversee the, implementation of various agreements in Burundi. It was the first military intervention of the AU in a member state and the military force consisted soldiers from South Africa, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. During the Darfur conflict too, AU troops were also deployed in Sudan, for peacekeeping, before the mission was handed over to the United Nations on 1 January 2008. The AU has also sent a peacekeeping mission to Somalia, with troops contributed by Uganda and Burundi.

The African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (2003) and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (2007), as well as the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and its associated Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance are some of the important documents adopted by the AU to establish norms at continental Level.

The AU has constituted Steering Committees to work on the .inline of three financial institutions: African Central Bank with headquarters at Abuja, Nigeria; African Investment Bank at Tripoli, Libya; and African Monetary Fund at Yaoundé, Cameroon. Eventually The AU aims to have a single currency—the Afro—by 2023. The AU Future confederation's goals include the creation of a free trade area, a customs union, a single market, and a central bank, thereby establishing economic and monetary union.

The challenges which confront the AU are health issues such as Combating malaria and the AIDS/HIV epidemic; political issues such as Confronting undemocratic regimes and mediating in the many civil wars; Economic issues such as improving the standard of living of millions   Of impoverished, uneducated Africans; ecological issues such as dealing With recurring famines, desertification, and lack of ecological sustainablity; as well as the legal issues regarding Western Sahara.

There is also a debate regarding the creation of a Union Government, with the aim of moving towards a United States of Africa. While some States. Favour a common government with an AU army, other countries wants to strengthen the existing structures and make the AU Commission and other bodies truly effective.

The AU recognizes eight Regional Economic Communities (RECs), each established under a separate regional treaty. The RECs are seen As the  basis for African integration, with a timetable for regional and then continental integration to follow. The eight RECs 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), and the Southern Africa Development Community  (SADC). However, the membership of many of these communities overlap, and their rationalisation has been under discussion for several Years.

The individual member states of the African Union coordinate Foreign policy through the AU, in addition to conducting their own international relations on a state-by-state basis. The AU is a permanent

Observer at the United Nations' General Assembly and represents the interests of the African people at large. The African Union also maintains special diplomatic representation with the United States and the European Union.