Initially the seat of the Pan-African Parliament was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, but was later moved to Midrand, South Africa.

The overall goal for the parliament is to be an institution that has full legislative power whose members are elected through universal suffrage, as stated by South African President Jacob Zuma in his opening speech to the first ordinary session of the second legislature of the Pan-African Parliament on October 28, 2009.

The Plenary is the main legislative and deliberation section of the Parliament, where representatives meet regularly to discuss issues in Africa and potential solutions.

The current members of the Bureau are:[8] The Secretariat assists in the day-to-day running of the Parliament, undertaking duties such as minuting meetings, organizing elections and managing staff.

The former had simply listed the PAP among the organization's bodies and stated, "In order to ensure that the peoples of Africa are fully involved in the economic development and integration of the Continent, there shall be established a Pan-African Parliament.

The composition, functions, powers and organisation of the Pan-African Parliament shall be defined in a Protocol providing thereof."

The Protocol Establishing the Pan African Parliament was adopted in 2000 during the OAU Summit in Lomé, Togo.

The changes outlined and passed in 2017 effectively made the Parliament the legislative body of the African Union.

[11] In one of its first actions the Pan African Parliament agreed to send a fact-finding mission to the Darfur region of Sudan.

[12] In some Member States this takes the form of Electoral Commissions colluding with political leaders and publish inauthentic results.

[13] When Roger Nkodo Dang's latest three-year term ended in May 2021, the Pan-African Parliament met to elect a new president and vice-presidents.

The meeting proved to be unfruitful as the constituencies from western and central Africa did not come to a consensus on who would lead the Bureau.

Now, the Parliament can receive, consider, and submit opinions on draft legal instruments, treaties and other international agreements.

Furthermore, the Parliament has power in accordance with the Financial Rules and regulations set by the African Union, such that they can control their own fund-raising activities through legislative action.

The Secretariat provides technical guidance to the political organs of the Parliament in regards to their decision to initiate the process of Model Law Formulation.

If it is, then the Model Law goes through an extensive drafting and adoption stage before ultimately being submitted to the African Union for approval.

This law was approved by the Parliament in 2018 and fully passed by the AU Assembly in 2022 and aims to change police in Africa from what they termed as "oppressive to one that respects and promotes democracy and peoples rights" to a group that better controls the "role, powers, conduct and discipline and conditions of employment of Police officers.

Indeed, the Committee recognized early in the process that a participatory and inclusive methodology would be vital to ensure its relevance to African policing governance, as well as to promote its visibility and use by stakeholders.