AU adopts the Maputo Protocol on women’s rights

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...

The AU is launched in Durban, succeeding the OAU. It carries forward a Pan-African ambition for integration and collective action, but its effectiveness remains shaped by member-state politics,...

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 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...

The AU adopted a charter linking popular participation, human rights and democratic governance to continental unity. It set regional standards against unconstitutional changes of government, though...

The AU adopted the first continental treaty focused on internally displaced people. It recognized state responsibility and the effects of conflict, disasters and development projects, connecting...