A growing group of world leaders has used the UN General Assembly to demand an overhaul of the Security Council, arguing that a power structure created in 1945 no longer represents the world it is expected to protect
UNITED NATIONS — A growing group of world leaders has used the UN General Assembly to demand an overhaul of the Security Council, arguing that a power structure created in 1945 no longer represents the world it is expected to protect.
Calls during the annual debate ranged from expanding permanent and non-permanent membership to giving Africa permanent representation with the privileges held by existing permanent members. African leaders made the most forceful case, while Japan and several smaller states also sought urgent change.
Kenyan President William Ruto said the imbalance between the General Assembly and the Council had become impossible to defend.
“Every nation is sovereign and equal under the Charter. Yet on the gravest questions of war and peace, five nations possess a permanent power that the other 188 do not,” Ruto said. “The equality proclaimed in this Assembly ends at the doors of the Security Council.”
Ruto noted that Africa has 54 UN member states but no permanent voice on the body primarily responsible for international peace and security. He said reform negotiations had continued for 17 years without producing a result.
“We should not accept that reform is impossible because it is difficult,” he said.
Sierra Leone, which coordinates the African Union Committee of Ten on Council reform, pressed the continent’s common position. It called for at least two permanent seats with all the rights of existing permanent members, including the veto if it is retained, and five non-permanent seats.
“The Security Council still reflects the world of 1945. Africa, home to more than 1.6 billion people and the subject of much of the Council’s work, still has no Permanent Seat,” Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio said.
Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima made a similar demand.
“The reform of this institution must begin with the reconstitution of the Security Council, for the world of 2026 cannot remain captive to the distribution of power in 1945,” Shettima said.
“Africa cannot continue to fill the Council’s agenda while remaining absent from its permanent membership,” he said.
South African Minister Ronald Lamola said meaningful reform of global governance must begin with the Council. He noted that African conflicts accounted for much of the body’s work while the continent remained excluded from permanent membership.
“Permanent seats for Africa in the Security Council, with all the prerogatives of permanent membership, are long overdue,” Lamola said.
Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama described the absence of an African permanent seat as “fundamentally unacceptable in the 21st century”.
“Security Council reform is not a favour to Africa; it is an imperative for the legitimacy, credibility, and survival of the United Nations,” Mahama said.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi also called reform urgent. She said the Council’s present structure reflected international conditions in 1945 and supported increasing both permanent and non-permanent membership.
“We need to transform it without delay into a structure that truly reflects the current realities of the international community,” Takaichi said. Japan did not name individual candidates for permanent membership in its address.
Lesotho backed comprehensive reform under the Ezulwini Consensus. Saint Lucia called for expanded representation for Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean. Niger questioned how the institution could command trust when Africa’s 54 countries had no permanent seat.
For India, the debate intersects with its long-running campaign for permanent membership. India, Brazil, Germany and Japan constitute the Group of Four, or G4, which supports expanding both categories of Council membership and backs each member’s candidacy. The African Union separately seeks two permanent seats under the Ezulwini Consensus.
The Security Council has 15 members. China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States hold permanent seats and veto power, while 10 members are elected for two-year terms. A Charter amendment requires approval by two-thirds of the General Assembly and ratification by two-thirds of UN members, including all five permanent Council members.