The African Union project is a permanent project of the Centre for the advanced study of the African Union and its institutions.

It is Lex Lata’s contribution to the African renaissance project. 2020’s project focused on Democracy in Africa, in relation to Agenda 2063 of the African Union. The project was administered in three key phases during a 10 month period, and was supervised thoroughly by a Project Head through group discussions, document review and feedback.

At the end of each phase, interns wrote essays, created reports and gave presentations, after which they received assessment reports. In 2020, the project examined the history of democracy in Africa; classical and contemporary theories of democracy; challenges of African democracies; as well as African legal framework including the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance and the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance.

The aim of this project was to bridge the gap between legal instruments and realities of African democracies, providing relevant recommendations. To this end, the interns created Draft Articles and Amendments to existing instruments.

In 2022, the project focused on a conceptualization of democracy in Africa. Particularly, the project focused on the challenge of unconstitutional changes in government and potential solutions to it. In addition to a report on this problem and debates surrounding it, a draft “Convention on the Prohibition of Unconstitutional Changes of Government” was produced.

One unique approach taken this year was the organization of a seminar on Unconstitutional Changes of Government in Africa. The seminar addresses the implications of Unconstitutional Changes of Government on democracy in African states and the mechanisms of the African Union for combating same.

The panelists included: Ms. Adebanke Ilori, a lawyer and the Executive Director of Raising New Voices Initiative and Mr. Chibuike Njoku, a lawyer and Professional Assistant at African Union ECOSOC.

Project Analyst: Favour Agbonyehemen

Senior Project Analyst: Titilope Adedokun