THE US has finally acceded to the AU-led pressure to have at least two African states accepted to the permanent membership of the UNSC. Picture: Elmond Jiyane/GCIS
THE United States has finally acceded to the African Union-led pressure to have at least two African states accepted to the permanent membership of the UN Security Council (UNSC).
However, it is the caveat the US has imposed that should worry the rest of the Global South as well as all UN member-states that subscribe to the ideals of equality, justice, and plurality of voices.
The US wants Africa’s permanent members to the Security Council to have no veto power.
Now, let’s look at the context: The UNSC has five permanent members, namely the US, France, UK, Russia and China. In the aftermath of Adolf Hitler-led WWII from 1939 to 1945, the states regarded as most important were granted the status of permanent membership to the UNSC, with exclusive privileges.
Although their unique role has somehow evolved over time, their unsurpassed power has meant the P5, as they are sometimes referred to, have remained comparatively the most powerful.
Two common features distinguish the five permanent members from the rest of the 193 member-states of the UN. This is borne out of their permanent presence in the deliberations and resolutions of the world’s most powerful body and secondly, they each possess a veto power.
This means any of the five may annul any resolutions they disagree with. Or perhaps the greatest importance, once invoked, the veto power means the UNSC may not adopt a proposed resolution.
Why is the UNSC the most important body in the whole world? Because their resolutions are binding! The maintenance of global peace and security reside within the UNSC.
As one of the six principal organs of the UN, the Security Council is charged with the task of recommending to the UN General Assembly if new members should be accepted or not. Additionally, and perhaps of greater significance, it is the UNSC that is tasked with approving any changes to the UN Charter.
Among other vitally crucial responsibilities of the UNSC include the establishment of international peacekeeping operations in conflict situations, enacting international sanctions, and authorising military action. As I alluded to earlier, the UNSC is the only UN body that has authority to issue resolutions that are binding.
Reforms to the UNSC are long overdue. The body is archaic, and over time it has proven to negate the very essence of its formation following Germany’s menacing war-mongering and killing machinery that saw Hitler attempt to usurp control of the global architecture.
The role of UNSC’s P5 was crucial in defeating Hitler, and led to the punitive division of Germany into East and West Germany. The reunification of Germany took place after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and by 1991 the processes were completed, marking the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
But it is the UNSC reform that is an elephant in the room. The UN Chief, Antonio Guterres, has steadfastly called for the reconfiguration of the body. At the time when the UN was founded, the majority of the African nations were still colonies of Western countries, especially the UK, France, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, and Spain.
The US grew markedly stronger in the aftermath of WWII, and Washington’s imperial tentacles stretched far and wide, until this day.
The refusal by the US to accept Africa as equal members in the UNSC, with the same powers that the rest of the P5 members have, exposes the lingering fault-lines in Washington’s foreign policy.
It reveals Washington’s unmitigated desire to continue the subjugation of Africa and, by extension, the Global South.
It paints a picture of the world’s only remaining superpower that hankers for the status quo. The proposal to have two new additions to the UNSC with limited powers is a sham. It is a disingenuous gesture and devious in every respect.
Africa must unite in condemning the stance of the US. The continent is not asking for crumbs at the table of the UN’s decision-making organ. Africa demands its rightful place, with all privileges that have been denied a continent that represents 1.4 billion from Cape to Cairo, Morocco to Madagascar.
The era of Africa being “affirmed” by the West is long past. Africa deserves its rightful place among the nations of the world. We need equal representation at the UNSC, complete with the requisite privilege that is the veto power.
Until all nations of the world are treated as equal regardless off the size of their economies or geographical location, instability and mistrust will persist throughout the corridors of the UN Headquarters in New York.
International Relations scholars unanimously agree that the global world order is undergoing rapid changes of great significance. Last week, during his key address to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping described the wind of change that is blowing across the Earth as “once-in-a-century”.
The subsequent abuse of the veto power by those that hold the privilege is an open secret. The protection of Israel’s genocide by the US using its veto power has become a constant. A deep sense of an injustice in our global world order that is aimed at preserving Western privileges is tangible.
The long-anticipated reforms to the UNSC should be implemented in their totality. Africa must show that the continent has finally awakened from slumber. We need no half a loaf of bread when our counterparts sit with a full loaf each.
It would be a great travesty of justice if Africa could agree to serve in the UNSC as a stepchild. Such will be an affront to justice and disservice to the continent’s 1.4 billion citizens, who know too well the pain of slavery, colonialism, apartheid and persistent racism that take numerous forms in subtlety.
Now is the time for Washington’s double-standards to be exposed, to be laid bare for their uncouth intent.
There can be no justification whatsoever, as Antonio Guterres said, to carry on as if it is “business as usual“. Failure to give to Africa what belongs to Africa will only result in the fragmentation of the geopolitical architecture, mistrust, instability, and, above all, hatred.
Humanity does not need this. Surely, recognising each other as fellow beings, the world can do better?
* Abbey Makoe is Founder and Editor-in-Chief: Global South Media Network. The views expressed here are his own.