Charter for the Union of African States
Article 2. Each Contracting Party undertakes to respect the
sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the other.
Article 3. The Contracting Parties undertake to settle any
disputes that may arise between them by peaceful means.
Article 4. Each Contracting Party undertakes not to commit
aggression against the other and not to take part in any military
alliance directed against the other.
Article 5. The Contracting Parties will develop and
strengthen the economic and cultural ties between the two
countries in accordance with the principles of equality and
mutual benefit and of non-interference in each other’s internal
affairs.
Article 6. Any difference of dispute that may arise out of the
interpretation or application of the present Treaty or one or
several articles of the present Treaty shall be settled by negotia-
tion through normal diplomatic channels.
Article 7. The present Treaty is subject to ratification in
accordance with the constitutional procedures of each of the
Contracting Parties. It will come into force on the date of
exchange of the instruments of ratification which will take place
in Phnom-Penh as soon as possible.
It will remain in force so long as neither of the Contracting
Parties denounces it with one year’s notice.
In faith thereof, the Plenipotentiaries of both sides have
signed the present Treaty.
Done in duplicate in Peking on the nineteenth day of
December, nineteen sixty, in the Chinese, Cambodian and
French languages, all three texts being equally authentic.
Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China
(Signed) Chou En-lai
Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Cambodia
(Signed) Pho Proeung
4.1371 Charter for the Union of African States
Alliance Members:Mali, Guinea, and Ghana
Signed On:April 29, 1961, in the city of Accra (Ghana). In force until
May 25, 1963.
Alliance Type:Defense Pact (Type I)
Source:Basic Documents of African Regional Organizations (1971),
vol. I, 49–52.
SUMMARY
Ghana and Guinea had formed a union in 1958 and sought to con-
tinue a foreign policy of regionalism by including Mali in a greater
alliance. The new Union of African States, signed in April 1961,
pledged to strengthen friendship and cooperation between the mem-
ber states, guarantee full political and territorial sovereignty, and guar-
antee collective security should one of the nations be attacked. The
alliance was short-lived, though, as President Sékou Touré of Guinea
declared the dissolution of smaller regional unions after the adoption
of the Organization of African Union (OAU) charter.
Alliance Text
The President of the Republic of Ghana, the President of the
Republic of Guinea, and the President of the Republic of Mali,
meeting in Accra on the 27th, 28th and 29th April, 1961,
Having regard to
(a) The Joint Communiqué issued in Accra on the 23rd of
November, 1958, which brought into being the Ghana-
Guinea Union,
(b) The Joint Communiqué issued in Conakry on the 1st of
May, 1959, laying down the practical basis for the achieve-
ment of such a Union, and setting out the basic principles
for a wider African Community owing no allegiance to
any foreign Power,
(c) The Joint Communiqué of the Heads of State of the
Republic of Ghana and the Republic of Mali, issued in
Bamako in November, 1960, regarding the achievement
of African Unity,
(d) The Joint Communiqué by the Head of State of the
Republic of Guinea and the Republic of Mali issued at
Siguiri on the 5th of December, 1960, recommending a
Union of the two States, and deciding that the friendly
relations and the ties of co-operation binding them to the
Republic of Ghana should be intensified,
(e) The Joint Communiqué that emerged from a meeting
between Presidents Kwame Nkrumah, Sékou Touré and
Modibo Keita, at Conakry on the 24th December, 1960,
reaffirming their joint determination to create a Union
between Guinea, Mali and Ghana, giving a mandate to a
Special Committee to formulate concrete proposals for
implementing such a Union;
Having regard to
The conclusions reached by this Special Committee meeting
in Accra from the 13th to the 18th January, 1960, and subject to
approval by their respective Parliaments decide that:Section 1 GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1. There shall be established between the Republics of
Ghana, Guinea and Mali a Union to be known as “The Union of
African States (UAS)”.
Article 2. The Union of African States (UAS) shall be
regarded as the nucleus of the United States of Africa. It is open
to every State or Federation of African States which accepts its
aims and objectives. It reaffirms the complete adherence of its
members to the African Charter and the Casablanca Resolu-
tions.
Article 3. The aims of the Union of African States (UAS) are
as follows:
to strengthen and develop ties of friendship and fraternal
co-operation between the Member States politically, diplomati-
cally, economically and culturally;
to pool their resources in order to consolidate their inde-
pendence and safeguard their territorial integrity;
to work jointly to achieve the complete liquidation of