There is currently no permanent representative of Africa on the Security Council. UN Secretary General: There should be a representative of Africa among the permanent members of the Security Council UN
“We cannot accept the fact that there is no permanent representative of a continent with a population of more than a billion people on the UN Security Council.” The UN Secretary General made this statement on Monday, speaking at a Security Council meeting dedicated to strengthening the representation of Africa.
Since 1945, the United Nations Security Council has been the bedrock of global peace and security, António Guterres recalled, but “the cracks in its foundation are becoming too big to ignore.”
“ The Security Council was created by the victors of World War II and reflects the power structures of that time, the UN chief continued. – The world has changed since 1945, but the composition of the Security Council, despite some changes, does not keep up with the times. In 1945, most modern African countries were still under colonial rule and had no say in international affairs. This led to a glaring omission that still remains unresolved: there is no permanent member representing Africa on the Security Council, and the number of elected members from the continent is not commensurate with its importance.”
Africa, according to António Guterres, is underrepresented in global governance structures – from the Security Council to international financial institutions – yet suffers disproportionately from the problems these structures are designed to address.
Nearly half of all country or regional conflicts on the Security Council agenda concern Africa. They are often exacerbated “by the greed for Africa’s resources,” which are vital to the global economy, and made worse by the interference of external actors.
“There can be no global security without security in Africa,” António Guterres stressed. “Meanwhile, African countries suffer from unsustainable debt burdens and underfinancing due to a global financial architecture in which they are underrepresented. They suffer from severe floods and droughts caused by a climate crisis for which they had no role. But despite all this, Africa has proven itself to be a reliable partner in the fight for peace both on the continent and beyond.”
Ensuring international credibility in the work of the Security Council means heeding the long-standing calls of the UN General Assembly and some permanent members of the Security Council itself to correct the existing injustice by including a permanent representative from Africa, the Secretary-General concluded.