PSC (Peace and Security Council)

The Peace and Security Council (PSC) is the African Union's principal organ for collective security and early warning. It was established by the Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, adopted in Durban in July 2002 and entering into force in December 2003. The PSC formally replaced the OAU's earlier Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution.

The Council has 15 member states elected by the AU Executive Council and endorsed by the Assembly: 10 serving two-year terms and 5 serving three-year terms, with seats distributed across the AU's five geographic regions. Unlike the UN Security Council, no member holds a veto and no seat is permanent, though larger states often rotate back in.

Its mandate, set out in Article 7 of the Protocol, includes anticipating and preventing conflicts, undertaking peace-making and peacebuilding, authorising and overseeing peace support operations, recommending intervention under Article 4(h) of the AU Constitutive Act in cases of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity, and imposing sanctions in cases of unconstitutional changes of government.

The PSC sits at the centre of the broader African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), which also includes the Continental Early Warning System, the Panel of the Wise, the African Standby Force, and the Peace Fund. It is supported operationally by the AU Commission, particularly the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security.

In practice, the PSC has suspended member states following coups — including Mali (2012, 2020, 2021), Guinea (2021), Burkina Faso (2022), Niger (2023), and Gabon (2023) — and has authorised or endorsed missions such as AMISOM in Somalia (later ATMIS) and the Multinational Joint Task Force against Boko Haram. Its decisions are typically taken by consensus, though procedural matters require a simple majority and substantive matters a two-thirds majority of members present and voting.