President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has reiterated calls for the reform of the UN Security Council, describing its current structure as unfair to African countries.
According to him, the council was constrained by its anachronistic structure and methods, which undermined efforts to tackle contemporary challenges in the most effective manner.
“The conversations around reforms, which have been going on for three decades, without an end in sight, must, therefore, yield real changes to the structures of the council to make it innovative in its approach,” he added.
The President was speaking at an event organised by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in New York, US, last Wednesday.
Current structure
According to him, the current structure of the council represented a long-standing injustice towards African countries, saying the time was long overdue to address the imbalance.
“It is obvious that the contemporary world has moved on significantly from the post-1945 world which gave rise to the birth of the UN and the structure of the Security Council.
“The world of 2022, and even less that of 2050, is not the world of 1945. The crisis of the multilateral financial institutions and the UN system, which were born from the rubble of the Second World War, is a deep crisis,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo further said the situation would continue “until a fair system is put in place, a system that reflects the new balances, no longer based on who lost or won the Second World War but on the major contemporary and future balances”.
“These balances must take into account new realities, such as demographic dynamics or access to resources in the context of scarcity,” he added.
As the situation stood now, the President said, the council was finding it increasingly difficult to propagate the rule of law and democratic principles.
“The use of the veto as an instrument of great power and interest is denuding the council of a great deal of legitimacy as the principal instrument for the maintenance of international peace and security.
“The African Common Position on UN Reforms, based on the Ezulwini Consensus, is of even greater relevance today than it has ever been. It is essential that it be brought back to the centre of global discourse,” he said.
According to the President, it would only be through the reforms suggested in the African Common Position that the council would be effective in addressing the challenges of the times.
“And it is only through its effectiveness at maintaining international peace and security that the council can remain credible, legitimate and relevant,” he added.