President Yoweri Museveni has asked African countries not to accept anything less at the UN Security Council reforms, until the continent is granted at least two permanent seats.
Speaking to a group of Foreign ministers from across the continent, the Ugandan leader said Africa, like the rest of other developing regions of the world are not asking for favours when they demand adequate representation. He said it was “obvious” that reforms will make the global body inclusive.
He spoke as the ministers from ten African countries charged with pushing for Africa’s demands for reforms concluded a meeting in Kampala on Thursday with a call not to relent on demands.
“The UN Security Council should have been and must be reformed. This is not [a] favour by anybody but a right of all peoples that inhabit the planet earth,” he told the audience at the Commonwealth Speke Resort in Munyonyo, Kampala.
The Ministers gathering in Kampala come from ten countries, designated by the African Union as C-10, or the Committee of 10. They are from Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Congo-Brazzaville, Libya and Namibia.
These countries, collectively under the chairmanship of Sierra Leone, have been collecting views from member states and other stakeholders around the world since 2015 in a bid to influence changes within the Council.
The desire to make changes to the UN Security Council, the UN’s most powerful organ has been agitated by Africa and other regions for nearly two decades now. The argument by the continent is that the Council, with five permanent members selected at inception, and 10 non-permanent members is detached from reality.
When the UN was formed in 1945, the five countries now permanent member of the UN Security Council had, either strong economies, had emerged victorious after WWII or had a huge population. US, UK, China, Russia and France are the five permanent members.