African Parliamentary Union
The African Parliamentary Union (English African Parliamentary Union , French Union des Parlements Africains , Arabic اتحاد البرلمانات الإفريقية, Portuguese União dos Parlamentos Africanos; abbreviated APU ), until 1999 "Union of African Parliaments", is a continental, interparliamentary, African organization. The goals of the organization, founded on February 13, 1976 in Abidjan ( Ivory Coast ), are closer cooperation between the parliamentary institutions of the African countries, contacts between African parliamentarians as well as with parliamentarians from other countries, as well as strengthening parliamentarism in Africa.
Seat and working method
The APU is based in the Ivorian capital Abidjan. The organization's working languages are English, Arabic, French and Portuguese. The APU organizes an annual conference at which parliamentarians from the member countries can exchange ideas. The last APU conference to take place was the 40th conference on November 9th and 10th, 2017 in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).
The APU has three governing bodies to coordinate their work: the "Conference of Presidents" ( Conference of Speakers of National Parliaments ), the "Executive Committee" ( Executive Committee ) and the "General Secretariat" ( General Secretariat ).
The Conference of the Presidents of Parliament is the highest organ of the APU, it consists of the chairmen (presidents or the equivalent) of all member parliaments and meets at least once a year. The conference discusses issues of concern to the APU as well as the continent and publishes recommendations to governments and organizations.
The Executive Committee consists of three members from each member country with a term of two years. The chairman of the executive committee is a parliamentary president of a member parliament. The committee meets twice a year for regular meetings. The main task of the committee is to monitor compliance with and implementation of the decisions and recommendations made by the Conference of Speakers of Parliament. Furthermore, the Executive Committee prepares the annual conference of the APU, draws up the annual work program and the annual budget. The exchange with other organizations is also one of the tasks of the Executive Committee.
The General Secretariat is the liaison office between all member parliaments of the APU as well as the APU and other international organizations.
Members
Regular members
According to information from the APU, 41 parliaments of the African countries are currently members of the APU.
observer
There are also a number of observers, including the African Union , the UN and its sub-organizations, the Arab League , the World Bank , the African Development Bank , the International Committee of the Red Cross , the Inter-Parliamentary Union , the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union , the Parliamentary Union Union of OIC member states , the European Parliament , the Latin American Parliament , the Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth and the Parliamentary Assembly of the French-speaking Communities .
Web links
- Official website (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Parliamentary Cooperation in Sub-Saharan Africa. (PDF, 126 KB) Research Service of the German Bundestag, November 4, 2010, accessed on June 28, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c organs. African Parliamentary Union, accessed June 28, 2018 .
- ↑ Members. (No longer available online.) African Parliamentary Union, archived from the original on June 28, 2018 ; accessed on June 28, 2018 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Observers. African Parliamentary Union, accessed June 28, 2018 .
