Akufo-Addo calls for more reforms of UN Security Council

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has described the structure of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as an injustice to African countries, calling once more for the reform of the body.

He said the current structure of the UNSC represented a long-standing prejudice toward the countries of Africa, and the time was long overdue in addressing it.

Speaking at an event organised by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, in New York on Wednesday, the President said that the Security 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.

“It is obvious that the contemporary world has moved on significantly from the post-1945 world, which gave rise to the birth of the United Nations 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 United Nations system, which were born from the rubble of the Second World War, is a deep crisis.

“It will 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 consider new realities such as demographic dynamics or access to resources, in a context of scarcity,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo noted that the Security Council in its current state, 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 Security 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 Reform, 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 stressed.

President Akufo-Addo posted that only the reforms that are suggested in the African Common Position “will enable the Security Council to be effective in addressing the challenges of our time.”

“And it is only through its effectiveness at maintaining international peace and security that the Council can remain credible, legitimate and relevant,” he added.