African Union Intervention In The 2015 Burundis Crisis Aspiration Versus Reality

Currently, the African Union (AU) Constitutive Act is the only international treaty thatrnprovides for a legally binding right of intervention against genocide, crimes against humanity,rnand war crimes that are committed against inhabitants of a state, within its boundaries. ThernAU’s right of intervention is not only a positive step towards protecting people against massrnatrocities from their own state it is also an innovative norm in international law.rnThis research is anchored on the December 2015 decision of the AU Peace and SecurityrnCouncil (PSC), a precedent-setting invocation of the AU’s Article 4(h) authorizing therndeployment of a military mission to Burundi to quell violence related to the dispute over thernthird term of the country’s President and the refuting January 2016 summit decision scrappingrnthe plan to deploy troops.rnHowever, as shown in this research, there are major normative and institutional gaps that mayrnhamper the enforcement of the AU’s right of intervention. Among the most notable gaps are:rnlack of precision on the types and criterion for military intervention; lack of crediblernenforcement organs; lack of unity among members and lack of commitment to the principle ofrnnon-indifference. Therefore, the AU needs to tackle these problems to be successful in futurerninterventions.Keywords: Intervention, Responsibility to protect, non-indifference, Burundi

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