THE ROLE OF AFRICAN UNION (A.U.) IN PROMOTING PEACE AND SECURITY IN AFRICA

THE ROLE OF AFRICAN UNION (A.U.) IN PROMOTING PEACE AND SECURITY IN AFRICA

Abstract:

Since the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to the African Union (A.U.), various measures have been adopted by the newly formed organization to promote peace and security on the African continent, apart from the efforts of the United Nations (UN), whose primary purpose is to promote peace and security all over the world. The role of the newly formed African Union has been expanded to include issues of human rights promotion, conflict management, promotion of good governance, and the issue of unconstitutional change of government. This is the first time in the history of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) that the issue of “exclusive domain” has been removed from the Charter of the OAU and by including in the new Constitutive Act of the AU the right of the Union to intervene in the internal affairs of a member country where there is arm conflict. Various specialized agencies were created in the new AU Act, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Human Rights Commission, and the African Human Rights Court, all to provide peace and security on the continent. The reason the African Union is promoting peace and security on the continent is simple: peace and security are desirable societal objectives as opposed to war and conflicts, and they mark a departure from the traditional one-level belief by the International Community that African countries are more conflictual. The end of the Cold War altered the international strategic environment and forced a radical revision of the global power structure, disrupting the natural harmony among people and replacing it with hostile ideologies. African States were products of colonial designs. Their economies operated in a system of global transactions that seemed biased against them. After independence, erstwhile colonial masters continued to influence direction by providing aid, advice, and models of development, which in the end were not beneficial. Lack of unity, good governance, and a strong economic base have made Africans have a significant share of responsibility for its failure. By the late 1980s, a continent touted as a “continent of promise” in the independence decade of the 1980s was fast becoming a “global basket case.” All through the 1960s and the first half of the subsequent decade, Africa was perceived as having more opportunities than Asia or Latin America but lacking a basic social structure. The reverse turned out to be the case, as the story of African development was marked more by human and natural tragedies combined with remarkable failures of socio-economic and political management. A vast population increase, declining food production rates, debt overhang, unemployment, bad governance, a lack of good health facilities, and accelerated poverty all contributed to a lack of peace and security in Africa. African leaders and some commentators on African affairs agreed that some of the provisions of the OAU Charter were major barriers to the promotion of peace and security in Africa. Therefore, in September 1999 in Sirte, Libya, African leaders agreed that the OAU was due for review, and by July 10, 2002, in Durban, South Africa, the formal launch of the African Union took place to replace it with the former OAU. The idea was not only to change the negative perception of the continent as a continent of conflicts and wars but also to adopt a holistic approach to promote peace and security.

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