The main objectives of the OAU were to rid the continent of the remaining vestiges of colonisation and apartheid; to promote unity and solidarity amongst African States; to coordinate and intensify cooperation for development; to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Member States and to promote international cooperation.
Through the OAU Coordinating Committee for the Liberation of Africa, the Continent worked and spoke as one with undivided determination in forging an international consensus in support of the liberation struggle and the fight against apartheid. The OAU had provided an effective forum that enabled all Member States to adopt coordinated positions on matters of common concern to the continent in international fora and defend the interests of Africa effectively.
Agenda calls for greater collaboration and support for African led initiatives to ensure the achievement of the aspirations of African people. The AU needs adequate, reliable and predictable resources to implement its programmes so as to achieve its development and integration goals.
Successive Summits of the AU have since , taken financial reform decisions, to ensure there is sound and predictable finances to address the historical challenges the African Union has faced. These are;. In the infrastructure sector, however, the Assembly made commitments to facilitate the development of renewable energy and nuclear energy sources, realizing that conventional energy sources are not sufficient to meet growing demands.
Participants engaged in discussions on the promotion of safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear energy; nuclear security and combating of illicit trafficking; and the prohibition of testing of nuclear explosive devices. The Conference called upon AU Member States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Treaty of Pelindaba without further delay. It also appealed to non-African States to sign and ratify the relevant Protocols to the Treaty of Pelindaba, to comply with all the commitments contained therein, and to refrain from any action that could undermine their objectives.
Another meeting will be held in the next 6 months to establish the ACNE budget, structure and activities. The assembly congratulated the 10 countries elected to the Peace and Security Council for a two-year term. Furthermore, the assembly requested that the Peace and Security Council place a stronger emphasis on conflict prevention and post-conflict resolution.
Decisions were also made about UN reforms. Those decisions included a renewal of the mandate of the Committee of Ten established to promote and support the Common African Position to push UN reform and a request for a progress report to the next Ordinary Session of the Assembly in July. The chairperson of the African Union Commission, H. Alpha Oumar Konare, in his opening speech, called for the ratification of the Pelindaba Treaty by the 28 member states that had yet to do so.
Resolutions were made affecting the Peace and Security Council; calling for greater emphasis on conflict prevention and ensuring implementation of the Continental Peace and Security Framework. Furthermore, the consensus advocated institutional reform of the United Nations, pointing out the lack of representation of the continent and requesting an expansion of the Security Council to include the allocation to Africa of two permanent seats with veto power and five non-permanent seats.
Internal divisions meant that any attempts at organising a reactive and cohesive response to crises were limited, if not impossible due to their non-intervention stance. Due to a requisite two-thirds consensus on all resolutions, factionalisation further complicated the resolution of pressing issues. Therefore, when the continent collapsed into a plethora of intrastate wars and insurgencies following the fall of the Soviet Union, the OAU was rendered largely redundant.
Context: The Emergence of a Pan-African Rhetoric The Organisation of African Unity OAU , established on 25 May , was the culmination of a number of diverse and far-reaching historical currents and political trends both on the African continent and abroad.
Formation Thus, between 22 and 25 May , delegates from 32 African countries convened in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to establish the Organisation for African Unity OAU , intended to form the continental base for pan-Africanism but resulting in a watered-down compromise between competing ideological blocs. Source: thisisafrica While the immediate full integration of African countries was untenable, the OAU did make significant steps towards identifying socio-economic development issues which racked the continent after independence.
Thus, the OAU Charter outlined its objectives to a Promote unity and solidarity of the African states b To coordinate and intensify their cooperation and efforts to achieve a better life for the peoples of Africa, c To defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity and independence, d To eradicate all forms of colonialism from Africa, and e To promote international cooperation, having due regard to the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This was to be achieved by calling on member states to recognise 1. The sovereign equality of member states, 2. Non-interference in the internal affairs of each state, 3. Respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each state and its inalienable right to independent existence, 4.
Peaceful settlement of disputes by negotiation, 5. Unreserved condemnation, in all its forms, of subversive activities on the part of neighbouring states or any other states, 6. Absolute dedication to the total emancipation of the African territories which were still dependent, and 7.
Affirmation of a policy of nonalignment with regard to all other blocs. Structure Independence was a prerequisite for attaining membership status in the OAU, although policies of the organisation were not legally binding on member states.
The Millennium Development Goals MDGs adopted in had as their overarching ambition the reduction by half of the proportion of people living in the world in extreme poverty, with a number of other Goals focusing essentially on primary health and basic education.
The world has made remarkable progress against the MDGs — largely driven by strong economic growth in China and India and other countries which had seemed like hopeless cases — but with significant progress in a number of African countries too.
That has only been possible because of the establishment of a virtuous circle of better governance and increased peace and stability, leading to stronger education and health systems supported by robust economic growth. The OAU — essentially a club of unelected elites — became a more democratic institution, more focused on the well-being of its citizens and ready to intervene in cases of bad governance or a breakdown of peace and security.
Fifty years on, it remains a work in progress, facing many challenges, including the consequences of climate change and the need to create jobs for a rapidly increasing and youthful population. It identifies a number of challenges, including those above, and rightly concludes that the global community needs to address them together.
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