African Union comes into being today

By M.S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, MAY 25. Today is Africa Day. Today is also the eve of the formal and legal transformation of the Organisation of African Union (OAU), founded on this day in 1963, into another structure called African Union (AU). From tomorrow, the OAU becomes the African Union.

It was on this day in 1963 that heads of State and government of the then independent 32 African States gathered in Addis Ababa and adopted the Charter of the Organisation of African Unity. According to a contemporary account of the event, the Charter was signed by 30 heads of State and government within half an hour the following day, with Morocco and Togo ratifying the Charter later. Emperor Haile Selaisse, who chaired the founding conference, expressed the hope that this continental union, would last ``a thousand years''.

However, this 38th anniversary of the founding of the OAU will be its last as the OAU is now well on the way to formally reinventing itself as the African Union when it holds its three- day annual summit in Lusaka, Zambia, on July 9-11 this year - the last OAU summit and the first AU summit.

The process of transformation of the OAU into AU began with the adoption at the fifth extraordinary summit of the OAU at Sirte, Libya, of what has come to be known as the Sirte Declaration of September 9, 1999. The date is now invested with a numerological mystique, referred to in OAU documents as 9.9.99. The next stage was the adoption of the Constitutive Act of the African Union (CAAU) at the OAU summit in Lome, Togo, in July, effectively replacing the OAU charter.

Unlike the OAU charter which was ratified within hours of its adoption, the three-stage process of signing, ratifying and depositing the instruments of accession of the CAAU has been rather more prolonged. According to Article 28 of the CAAU, the Act shall ``enter into force'' 30 days after at least 36 of the 53 member-States complete this process. With an appropriate symbolism, the last two member-States which completed this process were two of the most influential and powerful countries of sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa, the 35th OAU member to deposit the instruments of accession, did so on April 23, and Nigeria, the 36th OAU member to do so, followed suit on April 26. Thus, on May 26, 30 days after Nigeria's accession, the Constitutive Act attains the legal requirement for entering into force.

Why an African Union? According to the Sirte Declaration, the decision was taken after extensive deliberation ``on the ways and means of strengthening our continental Organisation to make it more effective so as to keep pace with the political, economic and social developments taking place within and outside our continent''. This is about the closest that the OAU has come to admitting that it has been less than effective during the 38 years of its existence.

Will the AU be more effective? It is true that the Constitutive Act provides for several new structures like the Pan African Parliament and a Court of Justice. It also makes the necessary genuflection to the promotion of ``democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance''. It is all somewhat like the curate's egg, good in parts. For instance, unlike the OAU whose ``Principles'' included an inviolable commitment to ``non-interference in the internal affairs of member-States'', the CAAU acknowledges ``the right of the Union to intervene in a Member-State pursuant to a decision of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the Union0 in respect of grave circumstances, namely: war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity''. However, the CAAU also recognises ``the right of Member-States to request intervention from the Union in order to restore peace and security'' - a provision which may well be used to suppress with outside help legitimate domestic dissent. It is much too early in the day for any judgment on how the new structure will work.

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Section  : International
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