African Unification Front
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August 4, 2005
ONE AFRICA, ONE VOICE
AFRICA NEEDS ONLY ONE UNIFIED PERMANENT SEAT ON THE UNSC
The AUF position on United Nations Security Council [UNSC] reform is that the African Union (led and represented by the Presidents of the Pan African Parliament) should properly be the permanent representative of Africans on the UNSC...and that the President of the Pan African Parliament should be the one to name the delegates who represent the AU on the UNSC. Africa should have only one unified permanent seat on the UNSC.
Click on Articles about African policies on UNSC reform:
[1] Two Seat UNSC Could Divide Africa
[2] UNSC is a Threat to African Unity
[3] African Union's Foreign Policy
[4] The Goal of African Diplomacy
[5] Interview with Asimenyi Kalinda
In order to select the actual individual African representatives at the UNSC, the President of the PAP should nominate a team, and these should be approved by the PAP. The agenda and policies that these diplomats represent at the UNSC must be the product of a process of consultation between all African states, African civil society, and voted for and approved by the PAP.
Each state in Africa should appoint people to serve on a foreign policy board to advise the President of the PAP, and to advise the African UNSC representatives, about specific issues of concern to each state. The African diplomatic corps and African institutions should also have a permanent international affairs forum to discuss policy and security, and produce policy papers for use by the states and by the PAP.
A common African position was reached at the OAU Summits of Tunis (1994) and Harare (1997). Africans required that the UN Security Council should be expanded in both its permanent and non-permanent members, and that it should have 26 members. At the time, prior to the creation of the African Union, the Africans demanded to have at least two permanent seats. The OAU Summit at Ouagadougou (8-10 June 1998) decided on the procedure for rotation of the two seats claimed by Africa in the expanded Security Council (AHG/Dec.6 (XXXIV).
The fact that the African Union now has a Parliament, means that Africa's vote on the UNSC can be decided by the parliament. The old procedure, however, would have involved nomination of candidates in each of the five African sub-regions, preparation of the list of candidates based on the names thus submitted, establishment of a pool from which the Heads of State and Government will choose two candidates to fill the two seats.
The two candidates would be required to represent two different sub-regions to have been designated by the Assembly Heads of State and Government. This would have been followed by the adoption of the same procedure when selecting African candidates for subsequent selection in the remaining sub-regions, and determination by the Heads of States and Government of the duration of the mandate of the two candidates elected as permanent members of the expanded Security Council. All these functions now fall to the President of the Pan African Parliament.
African Union President Gertrude Mongella is also urging the African Parliament to work towards implementing a common policy stance on rich countries and powerful regional blocs. President Mongella said that the policy should include a common African stance on United Nations reform, World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks, and other global forums.
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