An Analysis of the Responses of the African Union to the Coup in Burkina Faso (2015) And Zimbabwe (2017)

The Lomé Declaration of 2000 aimed to consolidate democracy on the African continent by outlawing unconstitutional changes of government. With this Declaration, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) took a position to support political change that is effected through the ballot and not by any other means. By declaring unconstitutional changes of government unacceptable, anachronistic and undesirable, the OAU was creating or entrenching the norm of democratic political change. This paper argues that the African Union (AU) has not been consistent in its responses to unconstitutional changes of government in Africa. This paper uses the cases of Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe to support this position. In the case of Burkina Faso, the AU was swift in its condemnation of the coup whereas in the Zimbabwean case it was not, in fact the AU did not even declare that what took place in Zimbabwe as a coup. The paper argues that the AU must be consistent in responding to unconstitutional changes of government because if it is seen to be lenient in some cases and harsh in others, this will create instability in Africa, the instability which the Lomé Declaration and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance seek to prevent.