The African Union is a conglomerate of 53 African countries. The Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi in order to replace the old Organization of African Unity, which was no longer effective, conceived it in 2002. The union is based on the European Union and its goal is to create political and social development between the member nations.
It also hopes to create better economic ties between each of the member nations. One of its goals is to have a single currency, much like the Euro for the European Union, by 2023. The union also allows member nations communicate and provide aid for one another.All of this is mainly focused on bringing prosperity to Africa The African Union is certainly influential, due to the great migrations of intelligent Africans to other, more developed parts of the world. Because of this “Diaspora”, countries all over the world would feel the effects of native Africans taking part in the AU agenda. Another great plus is the African Peer Review Mechanism, which reviews countries’ corruption levels of civil servants and has led to a widespread casting off of more corrupt officials across the continent.
Such a change also brings to light the effectiveness that the APRM has when dealing with sweeping reforms- enacting them rather than debating over whether or not they have the right. However, there is also a downside. The overall goal of Pan-Africanism is far too vague, which may lead to frequent overstepping of boundaries in the name of unity. Also, the venture is poorly funded, which prohibits delegates from meeting as often as would be optimal. This leads to a failure to stop major violence and crimes, because the members of the Pan-African Parliament aren’t able to properly meet all at once.Finally, the types of governments that make up the AU are not the most democratic or famed.
This undermines the authority of the organization when some of the edicts come from countries with shady pasts and human rights violations. For seventeen years, the African Union has been in Somalia attempting to maintain peace and overall stability in a country overflowing with corruption, famine, and instability. The African Union has worked with Somalia by instilling troops across the region to attempt to maintain tability with the new transitional government. Beginning in 1991 with the overthrow of President Mohammed Siad Barre Somalia has seen relentless violence with extreme civil unrest across the country.Thus, Somalia has been without an efficient government for nearly twenty years. Somalia’s new President Abdullahi Yusuf requested 15,000 to 20,000 more troops with the commencement of the transitional government.
Somalia is trying to reverse all the damage of the past twenty years, beginning by instilling a sense of safety and security for its people.Furthermore, the Ethiopians that were occupying Somalia with their troops threatened to leave Somalia last year. With this threat came an even larger issue, the concern that African Union troops would follow Ethiopia’s lead and leave Somalia. Not much has changed regardless of the African Union’s relentless efforts to work with the transitional government. Though its intentions seem benevolent, the African Union is heavily criticized for certain aspects of its organization and its effectiveness.
The founder of the AU, dictator of Libya Muammar el-Qaddafi, is not well liked in the international community.As if his style of national rule was not controversial enough, Qaddafi vows to make the entire continent of Africa a single nation, an ambitious dream that has some world leaders questioning his motives. Qaddafi also envisions a single currency for a unified African nation. Qaddafi is not alone in his aspirations, but most members of the AU prefer to keep their sovereignty for now and oppose Qaddafi’s dream. Qaddafi is also fighting for his good friend, Omar al-Bashir, dictator of Sudan and architect of the genocide in Darfur, to be dismissed of all charges that were placed by the International Criminal Court.Though he is not currently the chair of the AU, his influence is nonetheless a concern to those who oppose Qaddafi.
Others oppose the AU because it has not had the effectiveness that was promised by its mission statement. Too many AU members still import more than they export, showing a certain amount of dependence that these developing nations have on other countries, an interdependence that puts them in a precarious position if they are suddenly cut off from the outside world.Corruption in member nations has also been a large issue, pointing to the lack of ability the organization has to improve the situation of the member states. The organization, therefore, is considered useless as long as top government officials refrain from taking action to improve the livelihoods of the citizens of member states. Many critics also point to the lack of education reform since the inception of the AU, a major flaw in African society that the AU vowed to rectify.Human rights are also a huge issue regarding the controversy of the AU.
Torture, rape, and other human rights violations are commonplace in AU member nations, even though the AU is committed to ending human rights abuses. Half of the AU members have not even signed the document that validates the International Criminal Court; namely, many AU leaders oppose the mandate of the ICC. In the end, critics have deemed the AU a group of powerful leaders who really have no interest in helping their respective nations.
