Pretoria – Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ebrahim Ebrahim has reiterated South Africa’s call for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to reform.
“… The way the Council is currently formed is unfair to developing and small states, and disenfranchises the majority of the Member States of the United Nations, who form the majority of the General Assembly,” said the deputy minister.
He was delivering a public lecture on South Africa’s foreign policy at the University of KwaZulu-Natal under the theme ‘20 Years of South Africa and Multilateralism: Returning to the fold’.
Deputy Minister Ebrahim said the Council needed to remain true to its mandate and “move beyond the paralysis brought on by the geo-political interests of a few member states”.
“The only way this can happen is if world leaders, including those that represent the permanent members of the Security Council are bold and courageous, and commit to enlarging the Security Council urgently,” he said.
Failure to do so would encourage states to start acting unilaterally, with disastrous consequences for all, added the deputy minister.
The UNSC celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2015. In its nearly 70 years of existence, the Council has expanded only once, in 1964, when the Council’s membership was increased from 11 to 15. At the time, the legitimacy of the Council was questioned because its 11 members represented only 10 % of the UN’s membership at the time – as opposed to 21% in 1945 at the creation of the UN.
Today, the 15 members of the Council represent only 8% of the UN membership.
Ebrahim questioned how the council can be legitimate and representative, if two continents, namely Africa and Latin America, are not represented at all in the permanent category.
“The challenge before us is to transform global politics from a power-based hierarchy to a rules-based system of international society.” – SAnews.gov.za
