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African Union

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Politics and government

                                                    CAPTION: African Union


         Flag of the African Union, formerly used by the OAU Emblem of the
                                                             African Union
         ( Flag)                                               ( Emblem)

                           Anthem: Let Us All Unite and Celebrate Together
                                             Location of the African Union
                                             Capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
                                               Membership 53 member states
   Official languages The languages of Africa, as well as Arabic, English,
                                                   French, and Portuguese^
                                                                 Formation
                                        - As Organisation of African Unity
                                                                   - As AU
                                                            - May 25, 1963
                                                            - July 9, 2002
                        Chairman of the African Union Denis Sassou-Nguesso
                            Chairman of the Commission Alpha Oumar Konaré
                                                                      Area

                                                                   - Total
                                                            1st if ranked^

                                                           29,797,500 km^2
                                                                Population

                                                            - Total (2005)
                                                                 - Density
                                                            3rd if ranked^

                                                               850 million
                                                          25.7 people/km²
                                                                GDP (2003)

                                                                   - Total
                                                                   - Total
                                                                - GDP/head
                                                                - GDP/head
                                                           16th if ranked^

                                                   US$1.515 trillion (PPP)
                                                 $0.514 trillion (Nominal)
                                                              $1,896 (PPP)
                                                            $643 (Nominal)
                        Currencies Each member state has its own currency.
                                                Time zone UTC -1 to UTC +4
                                            Internet TLD Not standardized.
                                          Calling Codes Not standardized.^
                 Note 1: Some member states have other official languages.

   Note 2: Rank if the AU's members are counted as a single country (other
                               organisations are not counted in this way).

     Note 3: Each member state has its own calling code beginning with +2.


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   Life in the African Union
   Flag of the African Union
     * Citizenship
     * Culture
     * Demographics
     * Economy
     * Education
     * Enlargement
     * Foreign relations

                          * Geography
                          * History
                          * Languages
                          * Military
                          * Politics
                          * Sport
                          * Statistics

   The African Union (AU) is an organisation consisting of fifty-three
   African states. Established in 2001, the AU was formed as a successor
   to the amalgamated African Economic Community (AEC) and the
   Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Eventually, the AU aims to have a
   single currency and a single integrated defence force, as well as other
   institutions of state, including a cabinet for the AU Head of State.
   The purpose of the union is to help secure Africa's democracy, human
   rights, and a sustainable economy, especially by bringing an end to
   intra-African conflict and creating an effective common market.

Overview

   The AU is governed by the AU Assembly of Heads of State and the
   Pan-African Parliament, which are both assisted by the AU Commission
   which constitutes one of the secretariats of the Pan African
   Parliament. The current President of the Pan African Parliament,
   Gertrude Mongella, is the Head of State of African Union. Denis
   Sassou-Nguesso, president of the AU state of the Republic of the Congo
   is the Chair of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government. Alpha
   Oumar Konare is the current Chairman of the African Union Commission,
   which serves as the Secretariat of the Pan African Parliament and a
   civil service of the African Union.

   The AU covers the entire continent except for Morocco, which 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 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 are also deployed in Sudan for
   peacekeeping in the Darfur conflict. In 1994 the OAU wasn't aware of
   the situation of the country and only provided some humanitarian help
   to the conflict.

History of the African Union

   The historical foundations of the African Union originated in 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 Organisation 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 idea of creating the AU was revived in the mid-1990s as a result of
   the efforts of the African Unification Front. The heads of state and
   government of the OAU issued the Sirte Declaration 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.

   The African Union was launched in Durban on July 9, 2002, by its first
   president, South African Thabo Mbeki, at the first session of the
   Assembly of the African Union. The second session of the Assembly was
   in Maputo in 2003, and the third session in Addis Ababa on July 6,
   2004.

   Its Constitutive Act 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".

Membership

   Map of the African Union.
   Enlarge
   Map of the African Union.

   The African Union has fifty-three members, embracing the whole of
   Africa except Mauritania (membership suspended) and Morocco (see
   below).

   Current members

   Flag of Algeria  Algeria
   Flag of Angola  Angola
   Flag of Benin  Benin
   Flag of Botswana  Botswana
   Flag of Burkina Faso  Burkina Faso
   Flag of Burundi  Burundi
   Flag of Cameroon  Cameroon
   Flag of Cape Verde  Cape Verde
   Flag of Central African Republic  Central African Republic
   Flag of Chad  Chad
   Flag of Comoros  Comoros
   Flag of Democratic Republic of the Congo  Democratic Republic of the
   Congo
   Flag of Republic of the Congo  Republic of the Congo
   Flag of Côte d'Ivoire  Côte d'Ivoire
   Flag of Djibouti  Djibouti
   Flag of Egypt  Egypt
   Flag of Equatorial Guinea  Equatorial Guinea
   Flag of Eritrea  Eritrea

   Flag of Ethiopia  Ethiopia
   Flag of Gabon  Gabon
   Flag of The Gambia  Gambia
   Flag of Ghana  Ghana
   Flag of Guinea  Guinea
   Flag of Guinea-Bissau  Guinea-Bissau
   Flag of Kenya  Kenya
   Flag of Lesotho  Lesotho
   Flag of Liberia  Liberia
   Flag of Libya  Libya
   Flag of Madagascar  Madagascar
   Flag of Malawi  Malawi
   Flag of Mali  Mali
   Flag of Mauritius  Mauritius
   Flag of Mozambique  Mozambique
   Flag of Namibia  Namibia
   Flag of Niger Niger is two-thirds desert, and its misleading name,
   which means flowing water refers to the great river: The Niger.
   [[Niger Niger is two-thirds desert, and its misleading name, which
   means flowing water refers to the great river: The Niger.|Niger]]

   Flag of Nigeria  Nigeria
   Flag of Rwanda  Rwanda
   Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Western Sahara ( SADR)
   Flag of São Tomé and Príncipe  São Tomé and Príncipe
   Flag of Senegal  Senegal
   Flag of Seychelles  Seychelles
   Flag of Sierra Leone  Sierra Leone
   Flag of Somalia  Somalia
   Flag of South Africa  South Africa
   Flag of Sudan  Sudan
   Flag of Swaziland  Swaziland
   Flag of Tanzania  Tanzania
   Flag of Togo  Togo
   Flag of Tunisia  Tunisia
   Flag of Uganda  Uganda
   Flag of Zambia  Zambia
   Flag of Zimbabwe  Zimbabwe

   Suspended members
          Flag of Mauritania  Mauritania currently suspended following a
          coup d'état.

   Former members
          Flag of Morocco  Morocco left predecessor organisation in 1984.

Morocco's withdrawal

   The only African state which is not a member of the African Union is
   Morocco which chose to leave the AU's predecessor, the OAU, in 1984
   when the other African countries supported the Sahrawi nationalist
   Polisario Front's Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.  Some countries
   have since retracted their support for the Sahrawi Republic.

Summits

   No.     Host city/country             Date
   1st Durban        South Africa 9-11 July 2002
   2nd Maputo        Mozambique   10-11 July 2003
       Sirte         Libya       February 2004 ^*
   3rd Addis Ababa   Ethiopia    6-8 July 2004
   4th Abuja         Nigeria     24-31 January 2005
   5th Sirte         Libya       28 June - 5 July 2005
   6th Khartoum      Sudan       16-24 January 2006
   7th Banjul        The Gambia  25 June - 2 July 2006

   * Extraordinary meeting.

Organization

   The current Head of State of the African Union is Gertrude Mongella,
   who is also the President of the Pan African Parliament. The Chairman
   of the African Union's Assembly of Heads of State is Denis
   Sassou-Nguesso, and the Chairman of the African Commission is Alpha
   Oumar Konaré.

   The African Union has a number of official bodies:

   Pan-African Parliament (PAP)
          To become the highest legislative body of the African Union. The
          seat of the PAP is at Midrand, South Africa. The Parliament is
          composed of 265 elected representatives from all fifty-three AU
          states, and intended to provide popular and civil-society
          participation in the processes of democratic governance.

   Assembly of the African Union
          Composed of heads of state and heads of government of AU states,
          the Assembly is currently the supreme governing body of the
          African Union. It is gradually devolving some of its
          decision-making powers to the Pan African Parliament. It meets
          once a year and makes its decisions by consensus or by a
          two-thirds majority. The current Chairman of the Assembly is
          Denis Sassou-Nguesso, president of Congo-Brazzaville.

   African Commission
          The secretariat of the African Union, composed of ten
          commissioners and supporting staff and headquartered in Addis
          Ababa, Ethiopia. In a similar fashion to its European
          counterpart, the European Commission, it is responsible for the
          administration and co-ordination of the AU's activities and
          meetings.

   African Court of Justice
          To rule on human rights abuses in Africa. The court will consist
          of eleven judges elected by the Assembly. Kenya and Uganda have
          expressed interest in hosting the court.

   Executive Council
          Composed of ministers designated by the governments of members
          states. It decides on matters such as foreign trade, social
          security, food, agriculture and communications, is accountable
          to the Assembly, and prepares material for the Assembly to
          discuss and approve.

   Permanent Representatives' Committee
          Consisting of nominated permanent representatives of member
          states, the Committee prepares the work for the Executive
          Council. (European Union equivalent: the Committee of Permanent
          Representatives (COREPER)).

   Peace and Security Council
          Proposed at the Lusaka Summit in 2001. It has fifteen members
          responsible for monitoring and intervening in conflicts, with an
          African force at its disposal. Similar in intent and operation
          to the Security Council of the United Nations.

   Economic, Social and Cultural Council
          An advisory organ composed of professional and civic
          representatives, similar to the European Economic and Social
          Council.

   Specialized Technical Committees
          These address Rural Economy and Agricultural Matters; Monetary
          and Financial Affairs; Trade, Customs, and Immigration Matters;
          Industry, Science and Technology, Energy, Natural Resources, and
          Environment; Transport, Communications, and Tourism; Health,
          Labor, and Social Affairs; Education, Culture, and Human
          Resources.

   Financial institutions
          African Central Bank, African Investment Bank, African Monetary
          Fund.

Current issues

   The AU faces many challenges, including 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
   sustainability; as well as the legal issue of the still-unfinished
   decolonization of Western Sahara.

   In response to the ongoing Darfur conflict in Sudan, the AU has
   deployed 7,000 peacekeepers, many from Rwanda, to Darfur. While a
   donor's conference in Addis Ababa in 2005 helped raise funds to sustain
   the peacekeepers through that year and into 2006, as of July 2006, the
   AU has said it will pull out at the end of September when its mandate
   expires. Critics of the AU peacekeepers, including Dr. Eric Reeves,
   have said these forces are largely ineffective due to lack of funds,
   personnel, and expertise. Monitoring an area roughly the size of France
   has made it even more difficult to sustain an effective mission. In
   June 2006, the United States Congress appropriated US$173 million for
   the AU force. Some, such as the Genocide Intervention Network, have
   called for United Nations (UN) or NATO intervention to augment and/or
   replace the AU peacekeepers. The UN is currently considering deploying
   a force, though it would not likely enter the country until at least
   January, 2007. The underfunded and badly equipped AU mission expires on
   December 31, 2006 but so far there is no agreement on what will happen
   after that date.

   In response to the death of Gnassingbé Eyadéma, president of Togo, on
   February 5, 2005, AU leaders described the naming of his son Faure
   Gnassingbé the successor as a military coup. Togo's constitution calls
   for the speaker of parliament to succeed the president in the event of
   his death. By law, the parliament speaker must call national elections
   to choose a new president within sixty days. The AU's protest forced
   Gnassingbé to hold elections. Under heavy allegations of election
   fraud, he was officially elected President on May 4, 2005.

   Also, on August 3, 2005 a coup occurred in Mauritania that led the
   African Union to suspend the country from all organisational
   activities. The Military Council that took control of Mauritania
   promised to hold elections within two years.

   Current conflicts also include the Casamance Conflict in Senegal; the
   Ituri Conflict, an extension of the Second Congo War; the Ivorian Civil
   War; and the Somali Civil War, associated with Somaliland's claim for
   independence. There is still political fall-out from the
   Chadian-Sudanese conflict, North-South Conflict in Sudan, and the
   Ugandan conflict with the Lord's Resistance Army. Zimbabwe is also
   facing a political crisis.

   However, the most serious issue to face Africa is not a dispute between
   nations, but rather the rapid spread of HIV and the AIDS pandemic.
   sub-Saharan Africa is by far the worst affected area in the world, and
   as the infection is now starting to claim lives by the millions. The
   epidemic has affected over 25% of the population of southern Africa,
   with South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, and Zimbabwe all expected
   to have a decrease in life expectancy by an average of 6.5 years. The
   effects on South Africa, which composes 30% of the AU's economy,
   threatens to significantly stunt GDP growth, and thus internal and
   external trade for the continent.

   Controversy arose at the 2006 summit when Sudan announced a candidate
   for the AU's chairmanship. Five member states threatened to withdraw
   support for a Sudanese candidate because of tensions over Darfur. Sudan
   ultimately withdrew its candidacy and Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the
   Republic of the Congo was elected to a one-year term.

Economy

Languages

   The African Union promotes the use of African languages wherever
   possible in its official work. Its other working languages are Arabic,
   English, French, and Portuguese, although many other languages are used
   officially by some member states (e.g. Spanish is co-official with
   French in Equatorial Guinea.) Supplemental protocols to the African
   Union have made Swahili an official language of the African Union.
   Founded in 2001, the African Academy of Languages promotes the usage of
   and perpetuation of African languages amongst African people.

Geography

Foreign relations

Symbols

   The emblem of the African Union consists of a gold ribbon bearing small
   interlocking red rings, from which palm leaves shoot up around an outer
   gold circle and an inner green circle, within which is a gold
   representation of Africa. The red interlinked rings stand for African
   solidarity and the blood shed for the liberation of Africa; the palm
   leaves, for peace; the gold, for Africa's wealth and bright future; the
   green, for African hopes and aspirations. To symbolise African unity,
   the silhouette of Africa is drawn without internal borders.

   The flag of the African Union bears a broad green horizontal stripe, a
   narrow band of gold, the emblem of the African Union at the centre of a
   broad white stripe, another narrow gold band and a final broad green
   stripe. Again, the green and gold symbolise Africa's hopes and
   aspirations as well as its wealth and bright future, and the white
   represents the purity of Africa's desire for friends throughout the
   world.

   The African Union has adopted a new anthem, Let Us All Unite and
   Celebrate Together, and has the chorus O sons and daughters of Africa,
   flesh of the sun and flesh of the sky, Let us make Africa the tree of
   life.
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