During a recent high-level debate at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said that UNSC has failed to keep pace with a changing world.
Advocating for a permanent seat for Africa, Guterres said, “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” according to Al Jazeera.
He emphasised that Africa’s perspectives on peace and security, both within the continent and globally, are undervalued under the current arrangement.
The UNSC currently consists of 15 members, including five permanent members with veto power—China, France, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The remaining ten seats are non-permanent, distributed regionally, with three allocated to African states.
Meanwhile, the UN general assembly President Dennis Francis said, “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 said.
“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,” Francis added.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) demanded in May that African nations take a larger role in addressing global security and development challenges.
Advocating for a permanent seat for Africa, Guterres said, “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” according to Al Jazeera.
He emphasised that Africa’s perspectives on peace and security, both within the continent and globally, are undervalued under the current arrangement.
The UNSC currently consists of 15 members, including five permanent members with veto power—China, France, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The remaining ten seats are non-permanent, distributed regionally, with three allocated to African states.
Meanwhile, the UN general assembly President Dennis Francis said, “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 said.
“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,” Francis added.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) demanded in May that African nations take a larger role in addressing global security and development challenges.
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