African countries presented their draft resolution to expand the United Nations Security Council, saying the time has come to give a voice to people in the developing world and end the historic injustice that left the continent without a permanent seat on the UN’s most powerful body.
Nigeria, which currently heads the 53-nation African Union, formally introduced the resolution on Monday at a meeting of the 191-member UN General Assembly which must approve any council expansion plan by a two-thirds vote.
There is widespread support for enlarging the Security Council to reflect the world in the 21st century rather than the global power after World War II when the United Nations was formed. But all previous attempts have failed because of national and regional rivalries.
Getting at least 128 nations to agree on the same expansion plan in the coming weeks remains an uphill struggle.
The Security Council currently has 15 members, 10 elected for two-year terms to represent different regions and five permanent members with veto power — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
The African draft resolution is the second to be introduced in a week. Brazil, Germany, India and Japan, the so-called Group of Four, circulated their resolution first. But the four countries admitted on Sunday that their proposal still doesn’t have enough support and put off seeking a vote until the end of July, leaving
time for negotiations with the Africans. A third group of countries, Uniting for Consensus, has not presented a resolution yet but retains significant support.
Looming over the debate is opposition from the United States and China, who oppose the Group of Four proposal and say the time isn’t right for council reform because the disagreements among nations are too great.
Washington and Beijing can’t block an initial resolution before the General Assembly, but council expansion ultimately requires a change to the UN charter which needs approval from all five permanent members.
Nonetheless, Nigeria’s UN Ambassador Aminu Bashir Wali said ”Africa considers that now is the time most opportune to take a decision on this matter on which there have been several debates over the years.”
Secretary General Kofi Annan has invited world leaders to a summit in September to reform the United Nations and take action to meet UN development goals, including cutting extreme poverty by half by 2015. Security Council reform is the most contentious issue, and Annan said he wanted it out of the way before the
summit.
Wali said the summit offers the world’s nations ”an invaluable opportunity to rekindle hopes of mankind and confidence in the United Nations”.
Agreeing on Security Council expansion would convince UN critics ”that the member states can rise above narrow interest and embrace the larger interests of the international community,” he said.
But there are high hurdles to jump in a short time.
The African proposal would expand the council to 26 members, adding six permanent seats with veto power and five non-permanent seats. Africa would get two permanent seats — with South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt the frontrunners — and two non-permanent seats.
The Group of Four’s proposal would expand the council to 25 seats, adding six permanent seats but without veto power. Brazil, Germany, India and Japan would hopefully get four of the permanent seats with the other two reserved for Africa. The group would add four non-permanent seats, with just one for Africa.
The two sides said they would negotiate over the next week and then meet again in Geneva on July 25 to discuss progress.
Wali said Africa is prepared to negotiate but stressed that it is determined to gain a permanent seat on the council.
Egypt’s UN Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said Africa would like to see the elimination of the veto for all permanent members, but until that happens it will insist on the same veto rights as the five current permanent members.
The Group of Four initially called for new permanent members to have veto power, but dropped the idea because of strong opposition from several current permanent members.
South African envoy Xolisa Mabhongo said member nations have an unprecedented opportunity to make the Security Council more representative and responsive.
”We believe that this is the time to begin redressing historical injustices in global governance and to give a voice to the billions of people in the developing world who are now excluded from the decision-making processes in the Security Council,” Mabhongo said. – Sapa-AP