OAU to reincarnate itself

By M.S. Prabhakara

ADDIS ABABA, MAY 4. The forthcoming summit meeting of the Organisation of African Unity at Lusaka (July 9-11), the 37th Assembly of Heads of State and Government since the organisation was founded on May 25, 1963, will be the last OAU summit. During this meeting, the OAU will ``dissolve itself'' at least in its present nomenclature, to rise again, if not exactly like the phoenix, as the African Union at the next Assembly of African Heads of State and Government which will be held in South Africa next year.

With more than the required 36 members of the OAU (two thirds of the total OAU membership of 53) having deposited the instrument of ratification of the Constitutive Act of the African Union (CAAU) at the end of April, the original character of the OAU will now be replaced by the end of this month by the CAAU and the African Union (AU). The only remaining formal requirement for the new Act to enter into force is the 30- day period after the deposit of instrument of ratification by two-thirds of the member-States of the OAU.

Thus, yet another dream and vision of African Unity, articulated from days long before the process of decolonisation began by African ideologues on the continent and in the African Diaspora, is once again being given shape, a local habitation and a name. The present process, driven in the main by the Libyan leader, Muammar Gadhafi, which began with the Sirte Declaration of September 9, 1999, has taken less than two years to reach its completion.

At least in two crucial respects, the CAAU marks a departure from the OAU character. One, the provision for a pan- African Parliament; and two, a court of justice. For the present, the pan-African Parliament will have an equal number of representatives (five, of whom one shall be a woman) from all the member-States of the OAU, though ``in principle'' the idea of proportional representation has been accepted. The Treaty establishing the African Economic Community already provides for both a pan-African Parliament and the Court of Justice. While these were intended originally to discuss and arbitrate on economic matters, the CAAU substantially expands this mandate.

The detailed ``protocols'' governing the composition, powers and functions of these two putative institutions are yet to be worked out. Nevertheless, the concept and the implied acceptance of the supremacy of pan-African structures over national structures, marks a significant departure from normative concepts of national sovereignty.

In a conversation with this correspondent at the OAU headquarters, Mr. Faustin Kinuma, head of the OAU's Policy and Programme Co-ordination Office, maintained that member-States of the African Union must be prepared to surrender what he characterised as ``second degree sovereignty'' for the collective good of the Community. In such an arrangement, decisions taken by structures of the African Union have to have precedence over national legislation, he said.

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Section  : International
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