African Union (AU)Chairs: Michelle Cheripka and Isabel Scher (amun2012.africanunion@gmail.com)
The African Union is an intergovernmental organization established on July 9, 2002 that consists of 53 African states. The objectives of the African Union are to promote unity among the African states by catalyzing political and socioeconomic integration; to preserve African positions on issues that affect Africa and its people; to ensure peace and security within the continent; and to promote democracy, governmental stability, and human rights. Although the member states each handle their individual foreign affairs, the member states also coordinate foreign policy through the African Union; the agency represents the interests of Africa as a whole. The AU is also a permanent observer of the UN General Assembly and works closely with the United Nations to address a variety of international issues. The AU deals with a wide scope of issues that plague the continent; to name a few, the AU works to alleviate the AIDS/HIV and malaria epidemics, confronts undemocratic regimes and arbitrates in civil wars, works to improve living conditions for the millions impoverished and uneducated, deals with famines and desertification, and works to improve sustainability.
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