When the
African Union
The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...
(AU) was founded in 2002, it represented almost the entire
African continent, inheriting the membership of the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was founded in 1963, as its successor. Currently, the AU has 55 member
states.
Growth in the OAU typically came from post-
colonial
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 a ...
independence; as
decolonisation ended, the borders of the OAU had overlapped almost all of Africa.
Membership
Article 29 of the
Constitutive Act of the African Union (ratified July 11, 2000), states:
#Any African State may, at any time after the entry into force of this Act, notify the Chairman of the Commission of its intention to accede to this Act and to be admitted as a member of the Union.
#The Chairman of the Commission shall, upon receipt of such notification, transmit copies thereof to all Member States. Admission shall be decided by a simple majority of the Member States. The decision of each Member State shall be transmitted to the Chairman of the Commission who shall, upon receipt of the required number of votes, communicate the decision to the State concerned.
The following two articles discuss the suspension and cessation of membership:
:Governments which shall come to power through unconstitutional means shall not be allowed to participate in the activities of the Union.
and
#Any State which desires to renounce its membership shall forward a written notification to the Chairman of the Commission, who shall inform Member States thereof. At the end of one year from the date of such notification, if not withdrawn, the Act shall cease to apply with respect to the renouncing State, which shall thereby cease to belong to the Union.
#During the period of one year referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, any Member State wishing to withdraw from the Union shall comply with the provisions of this Act and shall be bound to discharge its obligations under this Act up to the date of its withdrawal.
The former of these two clauses has been used to suspend the participation of states in the AU a number of times. The only state to leave the OAU was
Morocco, which withdrew in 1984 following the admission of the
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in 1982. It joined the AU in 2017.
Current members
Between 1984 and 2017,
Morocco was the only
UN Member state
The United Nations member states are the sovereign states that are members of the United Nations (UN) and have equal representation in the UN General Assembly. The UN is the world's largest intergovernmental organization.
The criteria ...
in Africa which was not a member of the AU, following its withdrawal from the OAU in 1984. Many leaders of African nations supported the reintegration of Morocco to the AU. In July 2016, Morocco announced that it wished to rejoin the organisation. Morocco's membership was approved by the AU on 30 January 2017.
Possible growth
In February 2012, the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
Republic of Haiti signalled that it would seek to upgrade its observer status to associate member status. The AU had planned at its summit in June 2013 to upgrade Haiti's status from observer to associate.
In a press release issued May 2016, the African Union Commission announced, "According to Article 29.1 of the AU's Constitutive Act, only African States can join the African Union." Therefore, "Haiti will not be admitted as a Member State of the African Union."
Although the AU includes one
largely-unrecognised state, the
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, the prospects of the unrecognised African state of
Somaliland
Somaliland,; ar, صوماليلاند ', ' officially the Republic of Somaliland,, ar, جمهورية صوماليلاند, link=no ''Jumhūrīyat Ṣūmālīlānd'' is a ''de facto'' sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, still conside ...
being admitted to the organisation are slim. The AU continues to recognise the territorial integrity of
Somalia and favours the
Transitional Federal Government's claim that Somaliland is an
autonomous region over the Somaliland government's assertion of full sovereignty.
Nonetheless, Somaliland applied for AU membership in 2005, a request that has hereto gone unanswered.
After
Azawad's
unilateral declaration of independence from
Mali in 2012, the AU issued a statement calling the pronouncement "null and of no value whatsoever."
The only parts of continental Africa or outlying islands not represented by the AU are
dependencies and other small territories of France (
Mayotte,
Réunion
Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...
, and the
Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean), Italy (
Pantelleria and the
Pelagie Islands), Portugal (
Madeira Islands), Spain (
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
,
Ceuta,
Melilla
Melilla ( , ; ; rif, Mřič ; ar, مليلية ) is an autonomous city of Spain located in north Africa. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was par ...
, and the
plazas de soberanía
The ''plazas de soberanía'' (, lit. "strongholds of sovereignty") is a term describing a series of Spanish overseas minor territories scattered along the Mediterranean coast bordering Morocco or that are closer to Africa than Europe. This term ...
), the United Kingdom (
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha,
Chagos Archipelago
The Chagos Archipelago () or Chagos Islands (formerly the Bassas de Chagas, and later the Oil Islands) is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometres (310 mi) south of the Maldives archi ...
), and Yemen (
Socotra). Spain's Ceuta and Melilla are the only territories on continental Africa not represented by an AU member state.
Israeli
Israeli may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel
* Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel
* Modern Hebrew, a language
* ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008
* Guni Israeli ...
Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu requested in 2017 to join the African Union as an observer, with the bid supported by
Ghana.
See also
*
Foreign relations of the African Union
*
List of African Union member states by political system
References
External links
The official AU site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enlargement Of The African Union
African Union
African Union
The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...