Security Council: Algeria calls for “comprehensive reform” that grants 2 permanent seats to Africa
APS : Friday, 10 November 2017
NEW YORK- Algeria has underlined in New York the need to engage a “comprehensive reform” to the UN Security Council. The reform would address the injustice made to Africa by granting it two permanent seats.
At the first meeting of the working group in charge of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council reform, Algeria’s deputy permanent representative, Ambassador Mohammed Bessedik delivered a statement on behalf the Algerian delegation.
He stressed the importance of a comprehensive reform of this UN main body.
The ambassador has explained that the reform must focus on the mainstream questions relating to five chapters; the categories of the members, the geographic representation, the size of the enlarged Security Council and the relation between the Security Council and the Assembly General, and the right to veto.
Those chapters are inter-dependent, while referring to the call to address injustice made to Africa, he said.
Bessedik, in this regard, expressed Algeria’s support to the statement by Sierra Leone’s permanent representative and coordinator of the Committee of Ten of the AU Heads of State and Government on the Security Council Reform (C.10).
In this regard, he recalled the importance of the Ezulwini Consensus in which the African Heads of State and Government demand two seats as permanent members and two further seats as non-permanent members.
“It is inacceptable that Africa remains the only continent not to be represented in the category of the permanent members,” he said.
An equal geographic representation with an expansion of the two categories of the Security Council members would confer more legitimacy on the Council, both within the member-states and with the international public opinion as well.
“Algeria believes in a Security Council which is more representative, more democratic, more transparent and more effective,” added the ambassador, recommending watching the conduct of negotiations via the UN webcast.
Bessedik regretted that the document which has been elaborated in the last session of negotiations had not reflected the African common position, though it found broad political support.
As for the choice of representatives, he once against called for “stopping the exploitation of this question,” stressing that this decision is solely the responsibility of the African Union which has its own mechanisms likely to select candidates for positions with international organizations, including the UN.
The Algerian delegation also considered that the Security Council’s working methods should be improved.
Regarding the relationship between the General Assembly and the Security Council, the delegation reaffirmed the importance of close cooperation between the two bodies, warning against the encroachment of the Security Council on the General Assembly mandate in order to ensure the necessary balance and efficiency in the UN action.
As a conclusion, the Algerian delegation reiterated its support for the President of the General Assembly, the two Co-Chairs and other groups and member states with a view to advancing the process of negotiations as part of the intergovernmental group in charge of negotiations.
While welcoming the appointment of the two new Co-Chairs of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Security Council Reform, Kaha Imnadze and Lana Nussibeh, Permanent Representative of Georgia and Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirate, respectively, the Algerian delegation reaffirmed the need that the reform process is carried out in strict compliance with the United Nations Charter principles, in accordance with the General Assembly decision 62/557.
The Algerian delegation also stressed that the framework document, which reflects all the positions expressed both by the different groups of Member -States and by the Member States in their national capacity, circulated by the President of the UN General Assembly in July 2015, remains the reference document of the ongoing negotiations.
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