LECTURE
ON AFRICAN UNIONPLACE: SOPHIA UNIVERSITY, TOKYO, JAPANBY HIS EXCELLENCY MR. AFEWORKI HAILE ESTIFANOS,AMBASSADOR OF THE STATE OF ERITREA,DEAN OF THE AFRICAN DIPLOMATIC CORPSDATE/ 25 MAY 2017

I. OVERVIEWThe Organization of African Unity (OAU), the precursor to the African Union(AU), was formed on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The continental
union is composed of 55 countries on the African continent. AU was establishedon 26 May 2001 and launched on 9 July 2002 in South Africa, with the aim of,officially, replacing the Organization of African Unity.
The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of theAfrican Union, a semi-annual meeting of the Heads of State and Government ofits Member States. The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, isbased in Addis Ababa.
The population of Africa is more than one billion 250 000 inhabitants.
II. STRUCTURES/ORGANIZATIONSThe African Union has a number of official bodies:
Pan-African Parliament (PAP)
Pan-African Parliament is the highest legislative body of the AfricanUnion. The Headquarters of the PAP is at Midrand, South Africa. The
Parliament is composed of 265 elected representatives from all 55 AU
states, and intended to provide popular and civil-society participation in
the processes of democratic governance.
.
Assembly of the African Union
Composed of Heads of State and Heads of Government of AU States, theAssembly is currently the supreme governing body of the African Union.
It is gradually devolving some of its decision-making powers to the Pan
African Parliament. It meets once a year and makes its decisions byconsensus or by a two-thirds majority. The current Chair of the AU is thePresident of the Republic of Guinea, His Excellency Prof. Alpha CONDE.
African Union Commission (or Authority)
The Secretariat of the African Union is composed of ten Commissioners
and supporting staff and headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In asimilar fashion to its European counterpart, the European Commission, it
is responsible for the administration and co-ordination of the AU'sactivities and meetings.

2Court of Justice of the African Union
The Constitutive Act of African Union provides for a Court of Justice torule on disputes over interpretation of AU Treaties.
Executive Council
The Executive Council is composed of Ministers, designated by theGovernments of Member States. It decides on matters such as foreign
trade, social security, food, agriculture and communications, isaccountable to the Assembly, and prepares material for the Assembly todiscuss and approve.
Permanent Representatives' Committee
Consisting of nominated permanent representatives of member states, theCommittee prepares the work for the Executive Council.
Peace and Security Council (PSC)
The Peace and Security Council was adopted by the AU Assembly in July
2002. The protocol defines the PSC as a collective security and early
warning arrangement to facilitate timely and effective response to conflictand crisis situations in Africa. Other responsibilities conferred to the PSC
by the protocol include prevention, management and resolution ofconflicts, post-conflict peace building and developing common Defence
policies. The PSC has fifteen members elected on a regional basis by theAssembly. It is similar in intent and operation to the United Nations
Security Council.
Economic, Social and Cultural Council
An advisory organ composed of professional and civic representatives,
similar to the European Economic and Social Committee.
Specialized Technical Committees
Both the Abuja Treaty and the Constitutive Act provide for Specialized
Technical Committees to be established made up of African ministers toadvise the Assembly. The ten proposed themes are: Rural Economy andAgricultural Matters; Monetary and Financial Affairs; Trade, Customs,and Immigration; Industry, Science and Technology; Energy, Natural
Resources, and Environment; Transport, Communications, and Tourism;
Health; Labor, and Social Affairs; Education, Culture, and Human
Resources.

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Financial institutions•••

African Central Bank – Abuja, Nigeria
African Investment Bank – Tripoli, Libya
African Monetary Fund – Yaoundé, Cameroon

These institutions have not yet been established, however, the Steering
Committees working on their founding have been constituted. Eventually, theAU aims to have a single currency (the Afro).
Human rights
The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights exists since 1986,
is established under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights(the African Charter). It is the premier African human rights body, withresponsibility for monitoring and promoting compliance with the AfricanCharter. The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights wasestablished in 2006 to supplement the work of the Commission, following
the entry into force of a protocol to the African Charter providing for its
creation. It is planned that the African Court on Human and Peoples'
Rights will be merged with the Court of Justice of the African Union (seeabove).
African Energy Commission (AFREC)
African Energy Commission, launched in 2001, is a continental African
structure with the responsibility to ensure, co-ordinate and harmonize theprotection, preservation, development and the national exploitation, marketingand integration of the energy resources of the African continent.
II. AFRICA DAY
On 25 May 1963, Africa made history with the foundation of the Organizationof African Unity (OAU) which brought the Continent together. Since then, the25 May has been celebrated widely across the world particularly in Africa tosignify Africa’s identity and unity.
Africa is on the march towards a more prosperous future in which all its citizens,young, old, male, female, rural, urban, of all creeds and backgrounds areempowered to realize their full potential, live with satisfaction and pride about
their continent. Africa needs a future with healthy and well educated people
living in robust and developed economies.

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The African Union is now working to realize the African people’s aspiration
among others the one related to “an Africa whose development is people-driven,
relying on the potential of African People, especially its women, youth andcaring for children”.
The theme of the Africa Day 2017 is “Harnessing the Demographic Dividend
through investments in Youth”, represents a unique opportunity to discuss andreflect whiles celebrating important milestones on youth development across thecontinent.
This is why holding the current lecture with students at Sophia University, aswell as the exhibition taking place in the hall, outside of this new building, forAfrican Diplomatic Corps in Japan.
IV. THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC COMMUNITIES (RECs) OF THE
AFRICAN UNION

The African Union Member States are divided into five geographic Regions:
Central, Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western Africa.

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The Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are regional groupings of Africanstates. The RECs have developed individually and have differing roles andstructures. Generally, the purpose of the RECs is to facilitate regional economicintegration between members of the individual regions and through the wider
African Economic Community (AEC), which was established under the Abuja
Treaty (1991). The 1980 Lagos Plan of Action for the Development of Africa
and the Abuja Treaty proposed the creation of RECs as the basis for wider
African integration, with a view to regional and eventual continental integration.
The RECS are increasingly involved in coordinating AU Member States’interests in wider areas such as peace and security, development and governance.
The African Union recognizes eight RECs. They are:••••••••The Arab Maghreb Union (AMU/UMA) in the North,
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in theWest,The East African Community (EAC) in the East,
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) also in theEast,
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the South,
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in
the South-East,
The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in theCentre, andThe Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CENSAD) in the North,West Central and East.

V. AFRICAN UNION PARTNERSHIPSThe African Union has external partnerships where there are formal agreements
between the AU and a partner organization, region or country. There are ten
partnerships among which we have the one with Japan: Tokyo International
Conference on African Development (TICAD).
Africa–Japan cooperation was formalized in 1993 by the TICAD, which
established a consultative forum for development assistance to Africa. TICAD
meets at Heads of State and Government level every five years until TICAD V
in June 2013 in Yokohama, Japan, then every three years through a Decision
taken last year. TICAD is overseen by a follow-up mechanism, which comprises
a three-tier structure of secretariat, joint monitoring committee and follow-up
meeting. Each TICAD meeting approves an action plan with specific actions tobe undertaken within a three-year period.

6The last Summit, the TICAD VI was held in Nairobi, Kenya, the first ever heldin Africa. Including side events within the venue, over 11,000 people
participated in TICAD VI, including the representatives of 53 African countries
as well as development partner countries and Asian countries, international andregional organizations, the private sector, and civil society such as
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). In addition, a business mission withleaders from 77 organizations including Japanese businesses and universities
accompanied Prime Minister Abe and introduced Japanese private-sector
initiatives at each session.
VI PERSPECTIVES OF AFRICAN UNION
The move from a Secretariat to a Commission is one of the major innovations of
the AU Constitutive Act, embodying the will to make a qualitative jump forward
towards more integration. The AUC has been conceived as a collegial institution
independent from Member States, which has the competence to represent theUnion. It also plays the role of coordination and harmonization of activities andof implementation of inter-African cooperation, which was previously carriedout by intergovernmental institutions (the OAU Assembly and the Council ofMinisters). In certain policy areas, the Commission proved that it was in aposition to offer real added value to Member States.
The African Union has introduced a common passport that will allow visa-freeaccess to all member States, superseding existing national documents.
As the European Union, the African Union is pursuing a path of closer
integration through the launch of a common passport that will grant visa-free toAfricans. The first of electronic passports were unveiled at the African Union
Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, where they were issued to Heads of State and Senior
Officials.
The Union aims to distribute the passports to all African citizens by 2020.

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Dear students and distinguished participants,
Before you follow the presentations by African Regions, I seize the opportunity
to congratulate the Chancellor and the President of Sophia University forwelcoming us in this beautiful new amphitheater.
Happy Africa Day 2017 to all of you.
I thank you for your kind attention.

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