Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general of the UN, wants change and says that Africa isn’t given enough power in a world that is changing.
The head of the UN has asked the UN Security Council (UNSC) to change its old structure and give Africa a permanent seat at the table, saying that the region is not well represented.
At a high-level meeting of the council on Monday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the UNSC’s membership has not kept up with how the world is changing.
“We can’t accept that the world’s most important peace and security body doesn’t have a permanent voice for a continent with more than a billion people.” “We can’t stand it either when Africa’s opinions aren’t taken into account when it comes to peace and safety, both on the continent and around the world,” he said.
The 15-member UNSC is made up of China, France, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, which are the five permanent members with veto power. The other 10 seats are given out based on area.
Africa has three places, Asia-Pacific has two, Latin America and the Caribbean have two, Western Europe and other states has two, and Eastern Europe have one.
The UNSC asked in May that African countries be given more power to help solve global problems in terms of security and growth.
He said, “The fact that Africa is still clearly underrepresented on the Security Council is just wrong; it goes against both the principles of fairness and inclusion.”
“It goes against the idea that all states are sovereign and equal, and this institution needs to be changed right away to reflect the world as it is now, not as it was almost 80 years ago.”
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