Africa Pushes for Permanent Seat at UN Security Council

During a high-level debate on Monday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pointed out that the composition of the UNSC has not kept pace with the changing global landscape. He urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to reform its outdated structure and grant Africa a permanent seat, emphasizing that the continent is currently underrepresented.

“We cannot accept that the world’s preeminent peace and security body lacks a permanent voice for a continent of well over a billion people … nor can we accept that Africa’s views are undervalued on questions of peace and security, both on the continent and around the world,” he stated.

The UNSC consists of 15 members, including five permanent members with veto power—China, France, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The remaining 10 nonpermanent seats are distributed regionally: three for African states; two each for Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Europe and other states; and one for Eastern Europe.

In May, the UNSC emphasized the need to strengthen the role of African countries in addressing global security and development challenges.

UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis added that the UN must reflect the current world.

“The fact that Africa continues to be manifestly underrepresented on the Security Council is simply wrong, offending as it does both the principles of equity and inclusion,” he noted. “It runs counter to the principle of sovereign equality of states and calls for the urgency to reform this institution to reflect the world as it is now, rather than what it was nearly 80 years ago.”

A ‘favourable’ moment Speaking at the UNSC, Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio asserted that Africa demands two permanent seats and two additional nonpermanent seats on the council.

“The African Union will choose the African permanent members. Africa wants the veto abolished. However, if UN member states wish to retain the veto, it must be extended to all new permanent members as a matter of justice,” he declared.

Carlos Lopes, a professor at the University of Cape Town and former high representative for the African Union (AU), told Al Jazeera that while Africa’s efforts to secure better representation are not new, the current geopolitical climate makes this a “quite favourable” moment.

“There’s a competition for Africa’s votes; Africa’s bloc has become much more difficult to actually align with one position or another,” Lopes observed. “The Africans have been able to navigate these geopolitical tensions very well. We have seen it with the membership of the G20 being expanded to include the African Union. Now it’s another attempt by the Africans to push the envelope and try to do it at the Security Council.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA