The Response of the African Union to the North Africa Revolutions of 2011: Critical Analysis on the African Union Normative Frameworks Governing Democracy, Constitutionalism and Unconstitutional Change of Government

Guesh, Haile (2013) The Response of the African Union to the North Africa Revolutions of 2011: Critical Analysis on the African Union Normative Frameworks Governing Democracy, Constitutionalism and Unconstitutional Change of Government. Masters thesis, Addis Ababa University.

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Abstract

This research thesis is prompted by the North African Revolution of 2011 that toppled President Ben Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. Exploring the causes, triggers, chronologies and consequences of the North African Revolutions as well as evaluating the response of the African Union to the North Africa Revolutions in general and the Libyan civil war in particular is the central mission of this thesis. Since diplomacy was the pathway followed by the African Union to resolve the Libyan civil war, this paper examines the adequacy and efficiency African Union’s diplomacy and political solutions to the Libyan civil war. One of the major issues which is extensively discussed in this thesis is the relationship between North Africa Revolutions and the African Union normative frameworks and instruments governing democracy, constitutionalism and unconstitutional change of government. Solving the puzzle whether Revolutions are legitimate rights of the people under the African union normative and policy frameworks is the crux matter of this paper. The adequacy and potential of the African Peace and Security Architecture to respond to Revolutions is also inspected. Concerning the Responses of the African Union to the North Africa Revolution and the Libyan civil war, this paper contends that, even if the support of the African Union to the Revolutions is unequivocally clear, its responses however are slow and weak. Moreover, the African Union was also effectively ignored, marginalized and sidelined by external actors, such as the Western Nations and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. On the relationship between the North Africa Revolutions and the African Union normative frameworks governing democracy, constitutionalism and unconstitutional change of government, this thesis is of the opinion that there exists no inherent contradiction between the two. Revolutions are morally required and legally permissible under various African Union norms and legal instruments. Finally, by taking some basic lessons from the nature and consequences of the North African Revolutions, some recommendatory points are forwarded to the African Union and its member states so as to tackle the causes of future Revolutions in Africa. Besides, due to the failures the African Union political solutions to the Libyan crises and the resulting foreign military intervention, some proposals are suggested towards an effective implementation of Article 4(H) of the constitutive act of the African Union which empowered the Union to intervene in a Member State in respect of grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Lastly, since the Libyan civil war has exposed not only the existence of serious rift between the African Union and Western powers, but also the marginalization of the African Union by the latter, some practical solutions to advance the principle of “African solutions to African Problems” are provided so as to avoid the marginalization of African Union by external actors on matters originally belong to Africa. Key Words- Revolution, Democracy, Constitutionalism, Unconstitutional Change of Government

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General) K Law > K Law (General)
Divisions:	Africana
Depositing User:	Kabiru Wallace Ndung'u
Date Deposited:	04 Jul 2019 09:02
Last Modified:	04 Jul 2019 09:02
URI:	http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/9363

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