Fifty-five member states and a Sirte Declaration: the body that succeeded the Organisation of African Unity

Background

The African Union is a continental body consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African Continent.
It was officially launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity, which ran from 1963 to 1999.
In May 1963, 32 Heads of independent African States met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to sign the Charter creating the Organisation of African Unity, Africa's first post-independence continental institution.
The Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African Unity issued the Sirte Declaration calling for the establishment of an African Union.
The African Union was officially launched in July 2002 in Durban, South Africa, following a decision in September 1999 by its predecessor.
The aims of the African Union are laid out in the Constitutive Act of the African Union and the Protocol on Amendments to the Constitutive Act.
Its principal decision making organs are the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, the Executive Council, the Permanent Representatives Committee, the Specialised Technical Committees, the Peace and Security Council and the African Union Commission, while citizen and civil society participation is channelled through the Pan-African Parliament and the Economic, Social and Cultural Council.
Agenda 2063 is the strategic framework for Africa's long term socio-economic and integrative transformation.