Assembly of the African Union

The Assembly of the African Union, which is formally known as the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government (AU-AHSG), is one of several decision-making bodies within the African Union. The other bodies are the Pan-African Parliament, the Executive Council consisting of foreign ministers of the AU members states, and the African Union Commission. The Chairperson of the Assembly has few formal functions, the most important of which is to preside at the Pan-African Parliament during the election and swearing in of the President of the Pan-African Parliament.

History of the Assembly

The Assembly came into existence on 25 May 1963, as part of the ratification of Organization of African Unity (OAU). Initially the Assembly consisted of 32 independent members, the heads of state of the African states that had achieved independence by 1963. Until 2001, the governing constitution of the Assembly was the OAU Charter. The Assembly is now subject to the Union Act that created the African Union.

Members of the Assembly

The AU Assembly of the Heads of State and Government consists of the 54 heads of state and government of the member countries, the Assembly meets once a year at the AU Summit. The current Chairman of the Assembly is President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

The current members of the AU-AHSG are:

Member State	Representative	Title	Member since	Photo
Algeria	Abdelaziz Bouteflika	President	27 April 1999
Angola	José Eduardo dos Santos	President	10 September 1979	100x180px
Benin	Thomas Yayi Boni	President	6 April 2006
Botswana	Ian Khama	President	1 April 2008
Burkina Faso	Roch Marc Christian Kaboré	President	6 December 2015	100x148px
Burundi	Pierre Nkurunziza	President	26 August 2005	100x160px
Cabo Verde	Jorge Carlos Fonseca	President	9 September 2011	100x148px
Cameroon	Paul Biya	President	6 November 1982
Central African Republic (Suspended member)	Catherine Samba-Panza	President (Acting)	23 January 2014	100x148px
Chad	Idriss Déby	President	2 August 1990	100x170px
Comoros	Ikililou Dhoinine	President	26 May 2011	100x148px
Democratic Republic of the Congo	Joseph Kabila	President	26 January 2001	100x152px
Republic of the Congo	Denis Sassou Nguesso	President	25 August 1997
Côte d'Ivoire	Alassane Ouattara	President	4 December 2010	100x180px
Djibouti	Ismail Omar Guelleh	President	8 May 1999
Egypt	Abdel Fattah el-Sisi	President	8 June 2014
Equatorial Guinea	Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo	President	3 August 1979	100x130px
Eritrea	Isaias Afewerki	President	24 May 1993	100x160px
Ethiopia	Haile Mariam Desalegne	Prime Minister	20 August 2012
Gabon	Ali Bongo Ondimba	President	19 October 2009
The Gambia	Yahya Jammeh	President	22 July 1994	100x130px
Ghana	John Dramani Mahama	President	24 July 2012	100x170px
Guinea	Alpha Condé	President	21 December 2010
Guinea-Bissau	José Mário Vaz	President	23 June 2014	100x160px
Kenya	Uhuru Kenyatta	President	9 April 2013	100x130px
Lesotho	Pakalitha Mosisili	Prime Minister	17 March 2015
Liberia	Ellen Johnson Sirleaf	President	16 January 2006
Libya	Abdullah al-Thani	Prime Minister	11 March 2014
Madagascar	Hery Rajaonarimampianina	President	25 January 2014	100x140px
Malawi	Peter Mutharika	President	31 May 2014
Mali	Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta	President	4 September 2013
Mauritania	Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz	President	5 August 2009
Mauritius	Anerood Jugnauth	Prime Minister	17 December 2014	100x152px
Mozambique	Filipe Nyusi	President	15 January 2015
Namibia	Hage Geingob	President	21 March 2015
Niger	Mahamadou Issoufou	President	7 April 2011
Nigeria	Muhammadu Buhari	President	29 May 2015
Rwanda	Paul Kagame	President	24 March 2000	100x148px
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic	Mohamed Abdelaziz	President	22 February 1982	100x160px
São Tomé and Príncipe	Manuel Pinto da Costa	President	3 September 2011
Senegal	Macky Sall	President	2 April 2012	100x148px
Seychelles	James Michel	President	16 April 2004	100x148px
Sierra Leone	Ernest Bai Koroma	President	17 September 2007
Somalia	Hassan Sheikh Mohamud	President	6 September 2012
South Africa	Jacob Zuma	President	9 May 2009
South Sudan	Salva Kiir Mayardit	President	9 July 2011	100x148px
Sudan	Omar al-Bashir	President	16 October 1993	100x160px
Swaziland	Mswati III	King	25 April 1986
Tanzania	John Magufuli	President	5 November 2015
Togo	Faure Gnassingbé	President	4 May 2005
Tunisia	Beji Caid Essebsi	President	31 December 2014
Uganda	Yoweri Museveni	President	26 January 1986	100x148px
Zambia	Edgar Lungu	President	25 January 2015
Zimbabwe	Robert Mugabe	President	31 December 1987

Functions of the Assembly

50th anniversary African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 25 May 2013

The Assembly has nine basic functions:

1. set policies of the Union.
2. decide on what action to take after consideration of reports and recommendations from the other organs of the Union.
3. consider membership requests into the Union.
4. create bodies for the Union.
5. monitor the implementation of policies and decisions of the Union as well ensure compliance by all Member States.
6. create a budget of the Union.
7. provide direction to the Executive Council on conflicts, war and other emergency situations and the restoration of peace.
8. select judges for and withdraw judges of the Court of Justice.
9. appoint the Chairman of the Commission, Commissioners of the Commission, all respective deputies and determine how long they will serve and what duties they will perform.

Decisions of the Assembly

The Assembly shall take its decisions by consensus or, failing which, by a two-thirds majority of the Member States of the Union. However, procedural matters, including the question of whether a matter is one of procedure or not, shall be decided by a simple majority.

Two-thirds of the total membership of the Union shall form a quorum at any meeting of the Assembly.

The Assembly may delegate any of its powers and functions to any organ of the Union

See Also

European Council, the European alternative.

External links

• Assembly of the African Union Official Site