ISS Roundable Report: The African Union: The First Ten Years
Date: 2011-10-11 to 2011-10-13
Venue: , Kuriftu Resort and SPA,
Debre Zeit, Ethiopia
African Conflict Prevention
Programmed (ACPP)
And
Peace and Security Council Report
(PRP)
In 2012, the African Union (AU) will
celebrate its tenth anniversary. Since its establishment in 2002, the AU has
been engaged with carrying out the very ambitious project of ensuring a
peaceful, prosperous and integrated Africa. The African Union has been engaged
in establishing various kinds of policies and building decision making bodies,
including architectures such as the Peace and Security Architecture and
legislative and policy frameworks. In this regard the AU has promulgated many
conventions, designed numerous policies and strategies and established many
institutional mechanisms for peace and security, social development and
integration, as well as human rights and democracy. The AU’s four pillars,
namely peace and security, development and integration, shared values, and AU
capacity building, have already established the necessary normative framework
for implementing the organization’s vision and mission
The African Conflict Prevention Program
(ACPP) and the Peace and Security Council Report Program (PRP) of the Institute
of Security Studies (ISS) organized an expert roundtable in October 2011 with
the aim of assessing the successes and challenges of the AU during the first
ten years of its existence and to examine and propose areas for possible
improvement. According to Dr Mehari Taddele Maru, Head of the African Conflict
Prevention Program and co-chair of the round table, two major forthcoming
events made the experts’ roundtable crucially important and relevant, namely
the AU’s tenth anniversary in 2012 and the AU summit that will take place in
2012. This
expert roundtable aimed at reviewing papers for a two volume monographs Therefore,
investigating and measuring the progress and challenges of the AU in its
pursuit of integration, peace and security, shared values and capacity building
would be important in terms of the overall AU strategic plan. Such an activity
would also help to enhance the AU’s aim and mission as well as shape the policy
making process.
The expert round table was conducted from 11-13 October
2011, at Kuriftu Resort and Spa. Twenty four papers were presented by 31
experts from Africa, Europe and the United States. The experts discussed and
examined each papers and forwarded comments and suggestions on areas in need of
improvement. The
expert roundtable concluded with a note that papers which pass the review
process will be published either as part of the two volume monograph on AU’s
first Ten Years or ISS papers in 2012 to mark the ten years anniversary of the
AU.
