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.

Functions of the Assembly

The Assembly has nine basic functions:

Set policies of the Union.
Decide on what action to take after consideration of reports and recommendations from the other organs of the Union.
Consider membership requests into the Union.
Create bodies for the Union.
Monitor the implementation of policies and decisions of the Union as well ensure compliance by all Member States.
Create a budget of the Union.
Provide direction to the Executive Council on conflicts, war and other emergency situations and the restoration of peace.
Select judges for and withdraw judges of the Court of Justice.
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

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

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.

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 Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa.

The current members of the AU-AHSG are:

Member State	Representative	Title	Member since
Algeria	Abdelkader Bensalah	Acting Head of State	2 April 2019
Angola	João Lourenço	President	26 September 2017
Benin	Patrice Talon	President	6 April 2016
Botswana	Mokgweetsi Masisi	President	1 April 2018
Burkina Faso	Roch Marc Christian Kaboré	President	6 December 2015
Burundi	Évariste Ndayishimiye	President	18 June 2020
Cabo Verde	Jorge Carlos Fonseca	President	9 September 2011
Cameroon	Paul Biya	President	6 November 1982
Central African Republic	Faustin-Archange Touadéra	President	30 February 2016
Chad	Idriss Déby	President	2 August 1990
Comoros	Azali Assoumani	President	26 May 2016
Democratic Republic of the Congo	Félix Tshisekedi	President	24 January 2019
Republic of the Congo	Denis Sassou Nguesso	President	25 August 1997
Côte d'Ivoire	Alassane Ouattara	President	4 December 2010
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
Eritrea	Isaias Afewerki	President	24 May 1993
Eswatini	Mswati III	King	25 April 1986
Ethiopia	Abiy Ahmed	Prime Minister	2 April 2018
Gabon	Ali Bongo Ondimba	President	19 October 2009
The Gambia	Adama Barrow	President	19 January 2017
Ghana	Nana Akuffo-Addo	President	7 January 2017
Guinea	Alpha Condé	President	21 December 2010
Guinea-Bissau	José Mário Vaz	President	23 June 2014
Kenya	Uhuru Kenyatta	President	9 April 2013
Lesotho	Tom Thabane	Prime Minister	16 June 2017
Liberia	George Weah	President	22 January 2018
Libya	Fayez al-Sarraj	Chairman of the Presidential Council	30 March 2016
Madagascar	Andry Rajoelina	President	19 January 2019
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	Pravind Jugnauth	Prime Minister	23 January 2017
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
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic	Brahim Ghali	President	12 July 2016
São Tomé and Príncipe	Evaristo Carvalho	President	3 September 2016
Senegal	Macky Sall	President	2 April 2012
Seychelles	Danny Faure	President	16 October 2016
Sierra Leone	Julius Maada Bio	President	4 April 2018
Somalia	Hassan Ali Khaire	Prime Minister	16 February 2017
South Africa	Cyril Ramaphosa	President	15 February 2018
South Sudan	Salva Kiir Mayardit	President	9 July 2011
Sudan	Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan	Chairman of the Transitional Military Council	12 April 2019
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
Zambia	Edgar Lungu	President	25 January 2015
Zimbabwe	Emmerson Mnangagwa	President	24 November 2017

External links

Assembly of the African Union Official Site

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