LibGuides: Public International Law Research: African Union

Overview of the African Union

General Overview of the African Union

Established in 2002, the African Union ("AU") is an inter-governmental organization dedicated to advancing the vision of an "integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa." The AU consists of 55 Member States, representing all independent nations located on the African continent or its offshore islands.

The African Aspirations for 2063 Agenda highlights seven of the key objectives for the AU and its Member States in the coming years: peace and stability, food security, economic integration, enhanced human capacity, women's and youth empowerment, resource mobilization, effective communication, and increased institutional capacity.

The African Union is organized into 11 organs, and a full listing of these organs can be viewed here. The following are some of the major organs responsible for the oversight and quasi-judicial activity of the AU:

Assembly of the Union	The AU's supreme organ that determines AU policy, establishes priorities, adopts the annual program, and monitors the implementation of policies and decisions. The Heads of State and Government for all Member States sit in the Assembly. The Assembly is mandated to accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the African continent.
Executive Council	Comprised of foreign ministers from all Member States. Supports the AU Assembly by monitoring the implementation of Assembly policies. This organ also considers policy issues referred to it by the Assembly in the areas of foreign trade, energy, agriculture, health, and social security/disability.
Pan-African Parliament	Established by the 1991 Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (Abuja Treaty). The long term goal for this organ is to exercise full legislative powers, but currently it exercises advisory and consultative powers.
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights	The ACHPHR was established in 1987 to oversee and interpret the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (known as the Banjul Charter). The Commission can only make recommendations and does not have the authority to enforce its interpretations.
African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights	AfCHPR was established in 1998 and has jurisdiction over all cases and disputes submitted to it concerning the interpretation and application of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. The Court can make binding decisions, including orders of compensation or reparation.

Locating AU Primary Materials

Online AU Primary Materials

The African Union's (AU) primary source materials can be found on the international organization's website.

Decisions and Declarations of the Assembly

As a part of its mission to accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the African continent, the AU Assembly is responsible for making decisions on the reports and recommendations from the other AU organs. These materials are memorialized during the biannual AU Summits and Extraordinary Summits, and decisions and declarations from 1963 to present day are available on the AU's website.

Decisions and Declarations of the Executive Council

Much of the Executive Council's responsibilities are to make policy decisions on issues referred to the Member states and monitor the implementation of the Assembly's policies. Similar to the AU Assembly, the Executive Council meets biannually at both the AU Summit and the Extraordinary summit where they write down the substance of these discussions. The decisions and declarations from 1963 - present day are available on the AU's website.

OAU/AU Treaties, Conventions, Protocols & Charters

A complete collection of the OAU/AU treaties, conventions, protocols, and charters are available on the AU website. As a helpful pointer, this website allows you to filter the results to treaties that specific countries have signed, deposited, or ratified.

Recommended Secondary Sources

In addition to the primary source materials available, there are several additional resources that you can use to help you in your research.

The following link is a complete list of all the African Union (AU) websites, which includes links to AU Department websites, project websites, summit websites, and special websites. This is a great tool to use if you're interested in learning more about a specific area or mission of the AU.

Journal of African Union Studies - This journal serves as a platform for African and international scholars to comment on the AU and its endeavors. The Law Library has access to electronic holdings from 2016-present.

The African Union by Tony Karbo (Editor); Tim Murithi (Editor)
Call Number: DT30.5 .A3657 2018
ISBN: 1788311507
The African Union has been a major factor in establishing peace, security, and development in Africa. Today, however, the intranational body is struggling in the midst of a perceived dissipating appetite for supporting continental institutions. Previously seen as the panacea to Africa's continuing problems with violence and corruption in society, under the slogan "African Solutions to African Problems," the African Union, this book argues, seems to have run its course. Recognizing that the measured successes in political emancipation which have been recorded across the African continent do not seem to have translated into economic and social gains for its 1.2 billion citizens, the AU adopted a new development framework dubbed "Agenda 2063." The framework calls on African leaders to rediscover the "Pan African" spirit and to create the "Africa Africans want." In practice this means a new focus and engagement with the African Diaspora, tapping into their strong track-record in economic development. As this book shows however, there remain deep differences over the meaning, timing and sequencing of pan-African integration. Indeed, different member states have different understandings of the role of the African Union itself. This essential handbook, from one of the leading research institutions on the continent, seeks to uncover what some of those understandings are and why the unification project has remained so elusive.
The African Union by Ambassador Omar Alieu Touray
Call Number: DT30.5 .T68 2016
ISBN: 1442268972
This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the African Union during the organization's first ten years of existence. It takes the reader through the various intergovernmental processes that preceded and followed the establishment of the Union and through the workings of key organs such as the Assembly of Heads of State, the Council of Ministers, the Pan African Parliament and the Commission. The study argues that the African Union represented a rational choice of its member states, who saw it as a means to advancing their individual and collective preferences for liberation, peace and security, good governance and socio-economic development. It maintains that the African Union did not only make marked progress in a number of areas; the Union also established norms that had transformational effects on military and political elites at country and regional levels. However, like in most agent-principal relations, the autonomy of the Union was limited in many ways, and this affected the Union's effectiveness in such areas as human and socio-economic development, as well as in sustaining peace support operations. At a more general level, the study argues that the African Union offers clear insights into integration as a multidimensional process that no single theoretical tradition can explain in a comprehensive manner. The author's response to such a theoretical limitation is "fusionism," an integrated approach that amalgamates various analytical traditions in order to provide a better explanation of the processes of international integration. The detailed analysis and bold proposals will undoubtedly make the study appealing not only to specialists in African Studies, but equally to a broader spectrum of international relations and development scholars.
Governing Africa by Thomas Kwasi Tieku
Call Number: DT30.5 .T54 2016
ISBN: 9781442235304
The African Union (AU) is the leading international organization on the African continent. Established in 2001, it consists of fifty-four members, a ten-member Commission, political organs, such as the Assembly, Pan-African Parliament, and a body where civil society groups are represented. The AU seeks the political and socio-economic integration of the African continent and has emerged as a key player in international politics. Since its creation, the AU has tackled a wide range of issues, including health epidemics (Ebola), undemocratic change of governments, gender inequality, wars, poverty and climate change. It has also led military interventions in Burundi, Comoros, Sudan, and Somalia and adopted key legal instruments to prevent transnational terrorism, bad governance, human rights abuses, corruption and promoted economic development. Governing Africa shows how the AU has faced these challenges by providing a comprehensive and critical examination of AU's performance and role, explaining the innovative and homegrown solutions it has developed in the last decade. Going beyond the traditional security-centric discussion of AU, it analyzes other equally important issues that the AU has dealt with, such as human rights and democracy promotion. For those interested in global studies, the 3D model advanced in this book provides excellent theoretical model for studying IOs anywhere in the world. The first book to deal with the AU as a multi-dimensional, dynamic political organization, Governing Africa takes stock of AU's successes and failures in its first decade.
The African Union by Samuel M. Makinda; F. Wafula Okumu; David Mickler
Call Number: DT30.5 .M257 2016
ISBN: 1138790397
Fully revised and updated, the second edition of The African Union continues to offer the most comprehensive overview of the work of the African Union (AU), with special emphasis on its capacity to meet the challenges of building and sustaining governance institutions and security mechanisms. This new edition: Re-examines the African Union at the historic moment of the golden jubilee of the OAU, its predecessor. It examines the AU¿s efforts in its first decade, points out some of the organization¿s weaknesses, and posits options for addressing more effectively the challenges of peace, security, and governance in coming years. Critically reviews several arrangements and initiatives, including the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). Analyses performance of key institutions and programs of the AU, including the Commission, the Executive Council, the Assembly, and the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) as well as the New Partnership for Africa¿s Development (NEPAD). Discusses how far instability and insecurity on the continent are consequences of bad governance and the lack of strategic leadership. Considers how the absence of a clearly articulated ideology may undermine the implementation of the AU Agenda. In addition to offering revised and updated chapters throughout, this edition includes one new chapter, which critically discusses the AU¿s new international partnerships. With an emphasis on the current work of the AU and a view to the future of the organization, this book is essential reading for students and scholars researching African Politics and international organizations.
The African Union's Role in Peacekeeping by Isiaka Badmus
Call Number: JZ6377.A35 B33 2015
ISBN: 1137426608
This study examines the African Union's peacekeeping role in managing African conflicts. Based on a qualitative research methodology, it analyses AU peace operations in Burundi and Somalia, and hybrid peacekeeping in Darfur, in order to identify the lessons learned and suggest how future outcomes may be improved.