Implementation of the duty of care by the African Union

Most of the recruitment and deployment policies of the African Union Commission (AUC) guarantee a reasonable duty of care for the organization's civilian employees. Notwithstanding, an analysis of the implementation of the provisions reveals gaps between the rhetoric of a reasonable standard of care and the practice. In addition, the analysis reveals an uneven application of the organization's duty of care responsibilities to the different categories of its employees. Overall, non-AUC civilian staff deployed in various missions is guaranteed limited reasonable duty of care. While it is implausible to expect the same standard of care for all categories of civilians deployed in AUC missions, it is reasonable to expect that non-AUC civilian staff would at least have the requisite information to make informed decisions on the missions into which they are deployed. Given the increasing raft of challenges confronting deployments of various kinds and the fact that the AUC's deployment is often into extremely challenging situations, strengthening its duty of care framework and enhancing its implementation in practice is an urgent imperative.