Peace and Security Council facts for kids

The Peace and Security Council (PSC) is a very important group within the African Union (AU). Think of it like a special team that helps keep peace and safety across Africa. Its main job is to prevent arguments, manage problems, and help solve conflicts. It works with other parts of the AU to make sure Africa stays peaceful and stable.

Members of the PSC are chosen by the African Union's leaders. They pick countries from different parts of Africa. They also look for countries that can help with soldiers or money, and those that are serious about keeping peace.

The council has 15 countries. Five countries are chosen for three years, and ten countries are chosen for two years. Countries can be chosen again right after their term ends.

How the Peace Council Started

From OAU to AU

In the early 1990s, the countries in the Organization of African Unity (OAU) – which was the group before the African Union – tried to avoid sending peacekeepers. They focused more on talking things out to prevent problems. However, they changed their minds after big conflicts happened in Rwanda and Burundi.

By 1995, OAU members started to support using peacekeepers. But they still thought the United Nations should do most of the work for peacekeeping missions.

Later, many conflicts in Africa were handled by African groups, not the UN. For example, problems in Liberia and Sierra Leone were dealt with by the Economic Community of West African States. Conflicts in Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of Congo were handled by the Southern African Development Community.

These regional groups played a big role in solving local conflicts. This made people wonder if the OAU was working well. Members wanted to change the OAU. They felt it focused too much on talking and not enough on action. Also, the OAU was very large, and decisions needed everyone to agree. This made it hard to get things done.

So, in 2001, the OAU decided to create a new organization: the African Union. The new African Union was designed to have a main decision-making group with clear rules. This group would be smaller, with only 15 countries, to make decisions faster. It would also make decisions by majority vote, not needing everyone to agree. This new group could also suggest sending military help to the African Union Assembly. After some discussions, this group was named the Peace and Security Council. Its rules were written down in a special document called the Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council.

The PSC Protocol

The Protocol was officially accepted in July 2002. Most AU members agreed to it by December 2003. This document explains how the PSC is set up, what smaller groups it has, what powers it holds, and what its goals are.

For example, Article 3 lists its main goals. Article 4 talks about its guiding principles. These principles are inspired by the AU's own rules, the United Nations Charter, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 5 of the Protocol explains how PSC members are chosen and what rules they must follow.

Article 8 describes how the PSC holds meetings, how they vote, and how they create smaller working groups.

The Protocol also details special groups that help the PSC. These include the Panel of the Wise (Article 11), the Continental Early Warning System (Article 12), and the African Standby Force (Article 13).

Finally, the Protocol explains how the PSC works with other regional groups in Africa (Article 16). It also describes its relationship with international organizations, especially the UN (Article 17).

How the PSC Works

PSC Meetings

The PSC holds meetings at three different levels. These are meetings between country representatives, meetings between government ministers, and meetings between heads of state. The representatives meet at least twice a month. The other two levels meet at least once a year.

Before 2007, there were three types of meetings: formal meetings, briefing sessions, and consultations. In formal meetings, members talked about reports from the AU Commission, often about conflicts starting. In briefing sessions, PSC staff gave updates on topics like terrorism or development. In consultation meetings, PSC members worked to bring different people together to understand a problem.

After 2007, the PSC changed its meeting types to four: public meetings, closed meetings, consultations, and "Arria-type" meetings. In "Arria-type" meetings, PSC members meet with groups that are not governments and have informal talks.

By 2016, the PSC had held over 600 meetings.

Chairperson of the PSC

Every month, a new chairperson is chosen from the PSC members. This choice goes in alphabetical order of the member countries' names in English.

PSC Members

The PSC was partly inspired by the United Nations Security Council. However, unlike the UN Security Council, the PSC does not have any permanent members. No country has a special "veto power" to block decisions. All 15 members have equal power in the council. Ten members are chosen for two years, and five members are chosen for three years. Members are chosen to represent different regions of Africa fairly. Each country must meet certain rules to be a member. These rules are explained in Article 5 of the Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council.

Each term for a member country starts on April 1st and ends on March 31st. As of April 2020, the following countries were members of the PSC:

Morocco, a member of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, took on the role of president of this important group for a three-year term (2022–2025) starting from February 1, 2024. This council works hard to promote peace, safety, and stability across Africa.

Term	Central Africa			Eastern Africa			Northern Africa		Southern Africa			Western Africa
1 April 2017	Congo-Brazzaville				Kenya		Egypt			Zambia			Nigeria
2018															Togo
2019		Equatorial Guinea	Gabon	Djibouti		Ethiopia		Morocco	Angola		Zimbabwe	Liberia		Sierra Leone
2020	Burundi				Kenya		Algeria			Lesotho			Benin		Nigeria
2021		Cameroon	Chad					Egypt	Malawi		Mozambique	Ghana		Senegal
2022

What the PSC Does

PSC Mission

The main job of the PSC is to respond to conflicts in Africa. The PSC uses a system of working together for safety and has early warning systems to spot problems quickly. Article 3 of the Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council explains the PSC's goals in more detail.

PSC Powers

Article 7 of the Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council lists the PSC's powers.

Some of these powers include:

• Helping to make and build peace to solve conflicts.
• Suggesting military action to the AU Assembly in very serious situations. These include war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.
• Working closely with regional groups and the United Nations.
• Helping with humanitarian aid.
• Making decisions on any other issue that affects peace, safety, and stability in Africa.

Peace Support Missions

The PSC has led or approved several peace missions. Here are some of them:

• African Union Mission in Burundi (AMIB) – 2003 to 2004
  • The AU approved this mission on April 2, 2003. It started on April 27, 2003, and ended on May 31, 2004. A UN mission then took over.
• African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) – 2004 to 2007
• African Union Military Observer Mission in the Comoros (MIOC) - 2004
• African Union Mission for Support to the Elections in Comoros (AMISEC) – 2006
• African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) – 2007 to present
  • The UN Security Council approved AMISOM's deployment on February 20, 2007.
• African Union Electoral and Security Assistance Mission to the Comoros (MAES) – 2007 to 2008
• African Union/ United Nations Hybrid Mission (UNAMID) - 2008 to present
  • The UN Security Council created this joint AU/UN mission in Darfur on July 31, 2007.
• Regional Cooperation Initiative for the Elimination of the Lord's Resistance Army (RCI-LRA) – 2011 to 2017
  • The AU Peace and Security Council approved this mission in November 2011.
• African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA) – 2013
• African-led Support Mission to the Central African Republic (MISCA) – 2013 to 2014
  • A regional peace mission called MICOPAX was already in the Central African Republic since 2008. But a new crisis started in 2012–2013. In response, on July 19, 2013, the AU Peace and Security Council approved MISCA. MISCA took over from MICOPAX on December 19, 2013. The mission ended when the UN mission MINUSCA took over on September 15, 2014.
• Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) – 2015 to present
• Regional Protection Force – 2017 to present
  • In July 2016, the AU agreed to a Regional Protection Force to help the UN mission in South Sudan. The UN Security Council approved this force on August 12, 2016. Rwandan troops joined in 2017. This force was later absorbed into the larger UN mission.

Some operations were approved but never started:

• In December 2015, the PSC approved a force of up to 5000 troops for Burundi. This was to help bring order after political violence. However, the African Prevention and Protection Mission in Burundi (MAPROBU) was not welcomed by the Government of Burundi and never went to the country.