The African Union two-dimensional solidarity normative agenda: between contestation and cooperation

John-Mark Iyi argues that solidarity is a foundational principle of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and its successor the African Union (AU). However, the normative understandings, its contours, appropriation, and deployment of solidarity in the continent have shifted over time as the continent interacts with international legal norms and multiple external actors. This created a two-dimensional internal-external solidarity paradigm in (O)AU theory and praxis. In its internal dimension, the (O)AU tries to institutionalize and consolidate solidarity as a regional organizing principle cross-cutting different aspects of (O)AU affairs with its member states. In its external characterization, the AU invokes solidarity to make certain claims: (i) redress for economic inequalities amongst states; (ii) to formulate justifications for demanding opportunity for equal participation and an international legal reform for a fair and just international legal order; (iii) a normative mobilization for redress for colonial crimes and other forms of historical injustices of particular concern to Africa; (iv) the normative call for international support in the mitigation of humanitarian disasters such as climate change; (v) a normative basis for support in key domestic policy areas such as human rights, democratization and the rule of law. However, the search for international cooperation which underpins the solidarity claim seems to assume a consensus on certain universal values that are valid candidates for international solidarity in different regimes. Some of those values are sometimes contested resulting in tensions that could impede the evolution of the norm in (O)AU practice vis-à-vis international solidarity.