General info on African Union, considering its members, objectives and goals.

1. African Union
African Union (English)
‫االتحاد‬‫األفريقي‬ (Arabic)
Union africaine (French)
União Africana (Portuguese)
Unión Africana (Spanish)
Umoja wa Afrika (Swahili)

2. General Info
➔ Continental union consisting of all 55 countries on the African continent, including the 6% of
Egypt that is geographically in Asia.
➔ Established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and launched on 9 July 2002 in South
Africa, with the aim of replacing the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
➔ The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a
semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states.
➔ The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa.

3. Members
➔ All UN member states based in Africa and African waters are members of the AU.

4. Objectives
➔ To achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and Africans.
➔ To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States.
➔ To encourage international cooperation, taking due account of the Charter of the United
Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
➔ To promote peace, security, and stability on the continent.
➔ To promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good
governance.
➔ To promote and protect human and peoples' rights in accordance with the African Charter on
Human and Peoples' Rights and other relevant human rights instruments.

5. Objectives
➔ To promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels as well as the
integration of African economies.
➔ To promote co-operation in all fields of human activity to raise the living standards of African
peoples.
➔ To coordinate and harmonize the policies between the existing and future Regional Economic
Communities for the gradual attainment of the objectives of the Union.
➔ To advance the development of the continent by promoting research in all fields, in particular
in science and technology.
➔ To work with relevant international partners in the eradication of preventable diseases and
the promotion of good health on the continent.

6. Overview
➔ The African Union is made up of both political and administrative bodies.
➔ The highest decision-making organ is the Assembly of the African Union, made up of all the
heads of state or government of member states of the AU.
➔ The Assembly is chaired by Idriss Déby, President of Chad.
➔ he AU also has a representative body, the Pan African Parliament, which consists of 265
members elected by the national legislatures of the AU member states. Its president is Roger
Nkodo Dang.

7. Goals
➔ The AU's future goals include the creation of a free trade area, a customs union, a single market, a
central bank, and a common currency (African Monetary Union),
➔ Thereby establishing economic and monetary union.
➔ The current plan is to establish an African Economic Community with a single currency by 2023.

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