Founding of the Organisation of African Unity
On 25 May 1963, thirty-two independent African states met in Addis Ababa to found the Organisation of African Unity. The OAU's founding charter embedded two principles in tension: the right of peoples to self-determination (used to justify continued anti-colonial struggle) and the inviolability of colonial-era borders (used to prevent secessionist movements within existing states). The second principle — settled in the Casablanca vs. Monrovia group dispute — reflected the political reality that most African leaders, having inherited borders that suited their patronage networks and administrative capacity, preferred the stability of those borders to the chaos of redrawing them along ethnic or historical lines. The OAU's non-intervention norm, combined with the border-inviolability principle, created an institutional framework that protected authoritarian governments from external accountability while preventing the resolution of border disputes through peaceful revision. The organisation was widely criticised for its inaction on Uganda under Amin and its silence on internal human rights abuses; its successor, the African Union (2002), formally abandoned absolute non-intervention in cases of genocide and crimes against humanity.
- Year: 1963 CE
- Category: Diplomacy
