Talk:African Union

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of WikiProject African Union, an attempt to provide information in a consistent format for articles about the United Nations, its various comittees and the resolutions it passes. If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.

The spoken word version of this revision (diff) of this article is part of WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia, an attempt to produce recordings of Wikipedia articles being read aloud. If you would like to participate, visit the project page, where you can join the project and find out how to contribute.

This article is supported by the Africa-related regional notice board project, for collaborating on and improving Africa-related articles on Wikipedia. Please participate by improving this article, or visit the project page for details.

African Union is either included in the Wikipedia CD Selection or is a candidate for inclusion in the next version (the project page is at WPCD Selection). Please maintain high quality standards, and if possible stick to GFDL images. However, if you can improve the article, please do so!

	To-do list for African Union:	edit - history - watch - refresh
	Expand upon: Organisation Economy Funding and economy of the AU project

African Union was the collaboration of the week for the week starting on October 17, 2004. For details on improvements made to the article, see history of past collaborations.

Contents 1 this page needs to be seriously expanded. 2 Maps 3 Table 4 GDP 5 Development Bank 6 Maps: Part II 6.1 Compare 7 AU/EU longevity 8 subcategory 9 correction 10 "Dependency membership"? 11 AEC progress table 12 Wikipedia:Article Improvement Drive 13 Institutions 14 Nepad? 15 Official languages 16 Somaliland 17 Head of State 18 Federation?

[edit] this page needs to be seriously expanded.

the EU page makes me ashamed, anyone up for the project?

la gaie 14:10, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Currently, this article is expected to be next weeks Collaboration of the Week, and this will give the article a well-needed expansion. ✏ Sverdrup 14:54, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

(However, related to you comparison, not much is fair in the world today. Comparing the website of AU and EU doesn't make me very happy either. ✏ Sverdrup 14:58, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC))

aye, this is true. i personally thought that in these modern times when image is everything, the AU would understand how important a good website, it's your entire credibility. kinda. you know what i mean. la gaie 19:48, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Maps

Just curious: how do people create these lovely maps? Shorne 03:10, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

There are a couple blank maps at Image:BlankMap-World.png, Image:BlankMap-World-1985.png (see Wikipedia:WikiProject_Maps/World). Given those it's easy to add colours in the specific countries you want, crop and resize them accordingly. Not sure how the blank maps were created though. Aris Katsaris 04:22, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

As a sidenote, and in case anyone is listening, I'd have liked a pre-WWII Blank map of the world also. In creating Image:Communism expansion.png I had to make the pre-WWII Soviet Union's borders myself -- and am not so sure I made a good job of it either. :-)

it looks like this reply is only a couple years too late, but there is Image:BlankMap-World-WWI.PNG and Image:BlankMap-World-WWII.PNG now --Astrokey44 14:36, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Table

I disagree with using the upper table. It is apparently designed for individual countries, and most of the cells do not apply. Maurreen 14:31, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I agree that parts of it look a bit odd, and could be deleted: a similar table (actually a template) appears in European Union. -- ALoan (Talk) 18:03, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] GDP

2003, PPP $1.515 trillion, currency $0.514 trillion. Per capita from a capita of 799 million, PPP $1,896, currency $643.- Jerryseinfeld 19:08, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Development Bank

The main page says that a development bank is one of the AU's main goals. Do we know this for sure? Many of the AU member nations have already set up the African Development Bank (http://www.afdb.org/). rjhatl Wed Jan 26 07:39:20 EST 2005

[edit] Maps: Part II

In both the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations pages, the maps represented the organizations' place in the world.

The AU map includes Western Sahara. Is that correct? AFAIK, that territory is still disputed and under UN care, so it's doubtful they're an AU member. -- Rjhatl 17:04, 09 Apr 2005 (EST)

The government-in-exile of Western Sahara (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) is a member-state of the African Union, and recognized by it. See here for example: [1] Aris Katsaris 21:47, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Compare

[edit] AU/EU longevity

It should be noted that while th AU's information is sparse the EU has been around longer.

[edit] subcategory

it would be nice if the category "African Union member states" could become a sub-category.

[edit] correction

Could someone plese make Pan African Parliament members a subcategory of african union officials. also african union officials is a subcategory of pan african parliament members, this is incorrect.

yes, i've been wanting to do something about not only the Pan African Parliament, but the other structures too. i'll get on it. soon.

- la gaie 22:02, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "Dependency membership"?

Under the section "Members" three non-sovereign entities (voluntarily so) are listed as "dependency members of the AU. Can this really be true? My impression has always been that both the UK and France, and particularly France, have been very keen on maintaining control of everything related to foreign relations on behalf of their dependent territories, and so any contacts between the territories and third parties would necessarily have to be strictly business or cultural exchange, and never diplomatic or political business. Can anyone confirm? Does the AU really maintain direct political relations with these three territories? Technically, Réunion is not even a territroy, it's actually France itself. Is the EU a dependency member of the AU? --Big Adamsky 22:19, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

Good point. I can't find anything about this on the AU homepage, and neither dependency has members of the Pan-African parliament. It's quite possible the AU wants to include them somehow, to symbolically attach them to Africa; it could also be an old OAU anticolonial thing. But I suggest deleting it if no-one can come up with a source in the near future. Arre 17:55, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] AEC progress table

Swift reaction, Nightstallion!

• I havn't colored the "Other blocs", because they are not participating in AEC, so their progress is irrelevant (thus - no attention gathering colors). I added them for reference purposes only.

  I assume they eventually will be included somehow, however, and it doesn't hurt to colour them, does it?

  IMHO it hurts because their status is irrelevant to the "progress of the stage", so the stage would be deemed Completed even when they are red/unfinished...

  Fair enough. I'll not revert that. ^N_i^g_h^t_s^t_a^l_lⁱ_oⁿ ✉ 09:24, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

• I think that Agadir CU is currently not even discussed (if so the "?" should be removed)

  Mh, fair enough. Yes, it probably is not being discussed yet, so we should leave it blank.

• I will add the proposed dates for SADC in the regional blocs table (for SACU as SADC is somewhat as its successor...)

Alinor 21:17, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

• I was about to suggest that, yes.

• If we take into account this: [2] it states that 8 years after entry into force there will be a FTA, and 12 years after entry into force - CU. Then because Angola is inside the treaty we can assume that it is in force since 1999, so FTA is to be done in 2007 and CU in 2011? Alinor 22:13, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

  Fair enough, yes. Be sure to add this to the trade bloc page, too... ^N_i^g_h^t_s^t_a^l_lⁱ_oⁿ ✉ 23:09, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

  OK, but on the trade bloc page the table is for "most active" blocs and there is the already more advanced UDEAC sub-group of ECCAS, so CU and FTA are already "in force". The only empty field is Common Market and we can add a date there if we find date for the "Central African Common Market" of ECCAS, but I can't find such. Alinor 07:27, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

  Mh... okay. I couldn't, either. ^N_i^g_h^t_s^t_a^l_lⁱ_oⁿ ✉ 09:24, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Article Improvement Drive

Architecture of Africa is currently nominated on Wikipedia:Article Improvement Drive. Come to this page and support it with your vote. Help us improve this article to featured status.--Fenice 08:46, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Institutions

After re-reading the Constitutive Act of the AU, and the protocol on the PAP, I have made some small changes on the roles, ranks and attributions of the Assembly, and the PAP. Just trying to reflect what is true. Themalau 01:43, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nepad?

Along with the institutions of the AU maybe something could be said about its projects, such as Nepad and the African Peer Review Mechanism (although i'm not sure if the APRM is an AU initiative) Joziboy 10 April 2006, 17:46 (UTC)

[edit] Official languages

It says that the African languages as well as Swahili (isnt Swahili African?) English, French and Portuguese are the languages of the Union. Which ones, like Yoruba?Cameron Nedland 04:47, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Somaliland

The page says:

"The AU covers the entire continent except for Morocco, which opposes the membership of Western Sahara as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and Somaliland."

It can have two meanings:

1. Somaliland is not a member
2. Morocco is not a member because it opposes the membership of Western Sahara and Somaliland

The first one seems more reasonable to me, but then Somaliland's independence is not recognized by anyone, so why is it mentioned at all?

Please clarify. Thanks. --Amir E. Aharoni 15:53, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I've removed Somaliland, as it's not an internationally recognised state and as such can't join the African Union. Technically, it's part of Somalia as far as international law is concerned. —Nightstallion (?) 10:48, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Head of State

"The current President of the Pan African Parliament, Gertrude Mongella is the Head of State of African Union." Really? Bolivian Unicyclist 23:07, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Federation?

I don't think the African Union meets the requirements to be considered as a Federation fo States It's just an International Organization. --Camahuetos 16:28, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree. I have changed federation to organisation. --Ezeu 23:34, 5 October 2006 (UTC)