African Union Sports Council

MANDATE

1. Service the sport policy development needs of the African Union;
2. Promote sport as a fundamental human right to be enjoyed by all;
3. Promote and defend sport development and development through sport (sports-for-development);
4. Ensure that member states develop sport policies, programs, systems and structures;
5. Facilitate the development of relevant sport policies and structures in Member States and the alignment of national sport policies and strategies to the African Union Policy for Sustainable Development of Sports in Africa; to achieve harmonization and coordination of sports development;
6. Facilitate generic sport development on the African Continent in terms of skills development, social interaction, and communication of relevant information on programs using sports to promote African Union Agenda 2063 aspirations of the Africa We Want.
7. Oversee the coordination and organization of African Games and improving the profile of the Games.
8. Promote and defend a culture of good governance, democratic principles and institutions, popular participation, human rights and freedoms as well as social justice in the domain of sport;
9. Promote, advocate and defend a culture of gender equality in the domain of sport (this part is ready)

HISTORY OF AUSC

The 1960s were a peak of Africa’s decolonization and also saw the emergence of sports organisations whose goals were to develop sports on the continent and to promote pan-Africanist ideals among newly independent African states. In December 1966, independent African states established the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa (SCSA), a pan-Africanist sports institution whose headquarters was in Yaoundé, Cameroon.  SCSA became an intergovernmental supreme body responsible for promoting, developing and coordinating all sports on the continent.

The Organization of African Unity (OAU), an association of independent African states that was established in May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to defend the sovereignty and eliminate colonialism in Africa. OAU recognised SCSA in 1967 as the official organization responsible for coordinating sports on the continent. Apart from coordinating the organisation of the All-African Games, SCSA played an important role as a platform for African countries to promote sports on the continent from 1966 to 2012.

Following the establishment of the African Union in July 2002, the African Union Heads of States and Governments at a Summit in Sirte Libya in 2007 called for a revival of the role of sport in driving the agenda for sustainable development and further resolved to charge the Ministers of sport with the mandate to revitalise and harmonise sport in line within the African Union (“AU”) structures and agenda for sustainable development.

Following these developments, the African Union Executive Council Decision EX.CL/Dec.680 (XX) of 2012 endorsed the dissolution of the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa (SCSA) and establishment of a new African Sports Architecture. This was followed by the Fifth Conference of African Union Ministers of Sports (CAMS5) from 25-26 July 2013 in Abidjan, Cote D’ ivoire, that dissolved the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa in its special session on 26 July 2013, in line with the SCSA constitution. Following the dissolution, all assets and liabilities of SCSA were transferred to the AUC.

These developments led to the adoption of the Statute of African Union Sport Council by the Twenty-Sixth Ordinary Session of the Assembly of AU Heads of States and Governments on 31 January 2016 that established the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) as a Specialized Technical Office of the African Union responsible for coordinating the African Sports Movement and being a forum for concerted action between Member States for the promotion and development of sports and development through sport in Africa. The Headquarters of the African Union Sports Council is in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
THE SECRETARIAT