President John Dramani Mahama has called for Africa’s representation as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
Speaking at the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA80) Meeting in New York, President Mahama said the UN founding Charter was outdated as far as representation was concerned.
He noted that the most powerful post World War 2 nations were still being rewarded with an almost totalitarian guardianship over the rest of the world.
“And yet, the first sentence in Chapter 2, Article 1 of the UN charter declares that “The Organisation is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its members,” the President said.
“If this were truly the case, a continent as large as Africa with its numerous UN Member states would have at least one permanent seat on the Security Council.”
He said furthermore, veto power should not be restricted to five nations, nor should it be absolute.
The President said there must be a mechanism for the General Assembly to challenge a veto.
“No single nation should be able to exercise an absolute veto to serve its own interests in a conflict.”
President Mahama recounted the role that Africa played in its founding, which he said was small and relatively insignificant.
He said of the 51 member states involved in the founding of the United Nations in 1945, only four were African, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, and South Africa.
He noted that it was important to point out that the United Nations came into being in the aftermath of World War II because of the inability of its predecessor, the League of Nations, to avert a large-scale global conflict, which had been its guiding purpose when it was founded in 1920 at the end of the First World War.
He said out of the 42 founding member states of the League of Nations, only three were African, Liberia, the Union of South Africa, and Ethiopia, adding that Egypt was to join later in 1937.
President Mahama said Africa’s overall participation in the organization’s founding was minimal and relatively unimportant.
“That’s because before all the other talks and meetings, representatives from a group of 14 nations gathered in Berlin for a series of discussions that began in 1884 and which led to the partitioning and formal colonization of the African continent, which is also called the Scramble for Africa,” he said.
“It has famously been written that past is prologue. Well, in the past, the majority of the 54 nations that now comprise Africa were never offered a seat at the table where plans for a new world order were being drawn.”
Citing his administration’s resetting agenda, President Mahama said the United Nations should also embark on a process of serious recalibration and establish its own reset agenda.
He said since the organisation’s founding, the number of UN Member Nations had nearly quadrupled; declaring that the world had changed with such ferocity.
He said, his first days in office felt as though he had just awakened from a Rip Van Winkle-style slumber.
“That was after only eight years; imagine, then, what it would be like after eighty years.”
President Mahama said in 1945, the sun had not yet set on the largest empire in history; the most common mode of international travel was by sea; the personal computer had not been invented, let alone made portable; and television, a new convenience, was still in its infancy, albeit in black and white.
He said relations between the United States and the then Soviet Union were turning frosty, with Winston Churchill declaring that “an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”
President Mahama said in 1995, during the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, Nelson Mandela stood at the podium of the UNGA to declare that “The United Nations has to reassess its role, redefine its profile, and reshape its structures.
“It should truly reflect the diversity of our universe and ensure equity among the nations in the exercise of power within the system of international relations. In general, and the Security Council in particular.”
President Mahama said 30 years later, African leaders were still making the same request: for a permanent seat on the Security Council, with the power of veto.
“So, today, Madam President, I stand here in this exact spot, asking: if not now, then when?” President Mahama questioned.
“We demand not only a reform of the Security Council, but also a reset of the global financial architecture, which is currently rigged against Africa.”
He said Africa must have a greater say in the world’s multilateral financial institutions.
The UN Security Council is one of the five main organs of the UN, with the primary responsibility of maintaining international peace and security.
It consists of 15 member states, including five permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) who have veto power, and 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the UN General Assembly.
Source: GNA
Source: ghanabusinessnews.com
