African Union is formally launched

OAU member states adopted a protocol to create a regional court for human-rights cases. It extended the institutional architecture built around the African Charter, while access to the court and...

OAU leaders adopted the Sirte Declaration, calling for an accelerated move toward a union and stronger continental institutions. The declaration revived integration ambitions, but debate continued...

African leaders sign the Constitutive Act in Lomé, creating the legal basis for the African Union. The Act renewed a Pan-African institutional project and expanded cooperation, while the tension...

The Constitutive Act entered into force after the required ratifications. This legal transition from OAU to AU strengthened continental ambitions around integration, peace and common institutions; the...

The UN conference brings governments and civil society together to address racism, colonialism, slavery and contemporary discrimination. Disputes over reparations and the Middle East revealed sharp...

An AU extraordinary summit approved an amendment explicitly inviting and encouraging full participation by Africans in the diaspora in building the Union. It gave institutional form to a long-standing...

The African Union adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. Women’s movements and advocates had pressed for protections on equality, health, political participation and freedom from...

The Pan-African Parliament opened in Addis Ababa, giving national legislators a continental forum. Its original advisory role limited popular legislative power, but its creation embodied a claim...

The first conference brought African and diaspora intellectuals together around cultural memory, development and renewed transatlantic connection. Its discussions treated the diaspora as a political...

The AU Executive Council adopted a definition of the diaspora as a constituent part of the African family and called for diaspora participation in Union building. The policy was an institutional...