Staff Reporter
VICE President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has once again emphasised the need to reform the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), arguing that the permanent five members of the UNSC (P5) have repeatedly used their veto power to advance their own interests or shield their allies.
“The P5 have repeatedly used their veto power to promote their own interests or protect their allies, thereby undermining the effectiveness and legitimacy of the Council. Since the veto has been used to promote narrow national interests, calls for reform of the Council are constantly being heard, even though reform of the Council has been almost impossible since the last amendment to the United Nations Charter in 1965, which increased the number of Council members from 11 to 15, but only added four non-permanent categories while the original five permanent members were left unaffected,” the Vice President said.
According to her, the nations that shaped the current international system knew that it would serve their interests while presenting a challenge to reform it. This was highlighted by Nandi-Ndaitwah in the preface of the Report of the Joint Namibia-Amani Africa High-Level Panel of Experts on Africa and the Reform of the Multilateral System in a Changing Global Order. This report aims to highlight Africa’s vision of multilateralism.
“I am proud that the experts have been working very hard and were able to produce this report at a time when world leaders are expected to agree and endorse the Pact of the Future, which is meant to turbocharge the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said.
The Vice President also pointed to the legitimacy and effectiveness of the UNSC as critical issues requiring attention. She stressed that the reform must also address the problems of inequitable representation and skewed power distribution.
“Let us consider the example of Europe, which represents only around 6.6 per cent of the planet’s total land area, with a population equivalent to 9.32 per cent of the total world population. However, the European continent is over-represented by 60 per cent in the Security Council while Africa, which accounts for 28 per cent of the membership of the UN, has no permanent representation,” she said.
The Vice President proposed that UNSC reform should involve those currently excluded from the system to legitimise the process and restore global confidence in multilateralism. She added that efforts will continue to find the best way to not only make Africa’s voice heard in the reform of the multilateral system but also to influence the final process to guarantee the credibility of the council’s actions, while boosting Africans’ confidence in the system.
“Any reform process that does not reflect the hopes and aspirations of Africans, whether the current or future generations, will only perpetuate past injustices and will betray the generation that laboured in pain for the freedom and independence of the continent of Africa,” the Vice President added.
