African countries presented their draft resolution to expand the UN Security Council, saying the time has come to give a voice to people in the developing world and end the historic injustice that left the continent without a permanent seat on the UN's most powerful body.
Nigeria, which currently heads the 53-nation African Union, formally introduced the resolution Monday at the 191-member UN General Assembly which must approve any council expansion plan by a two-thirds vote.
There is widespread support for enlarging the Security Council to reflect the world in the 21st century rather than the global power after World War II when the UN was formed. But all previous attempts have failed because of national and regional rivalries.
The Security Council currently has 15 members, 10 elected for two-year terms to represent different regions and five permanent members with veto power -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the US. The African draft resolution is the second to be introduced in a week. Brazil, Germany, India and Japan, the so-called Group of Four, circulated their resolution first. But the four countries admitted Sunday that their proposal still doesn't have enough support and put off seeking a vote until the end of this month, leaving time for negotiations with the Africans.
The US and China oppose the Group of Four proposal and say the time isn't right for council reform because the disagreements among nations are too great.
Washington and Beijing can't block an initial resolution before the General Assembly, but council expansion ultimately requires a change to the UN Charter which needs approval from all five permanent members.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has invited world leaders to a summit in September to reform the UN and take action to meet UN development goals, including cutting extreme poverty by half by 2015. Security Council reform is the most contentious issue, and Annan said he wanted it out of the way before the summit.
The African proposal would expand the council to 26 members, adding six permanent seats with veto power and five non-permanent seats. Africa would get two permanent seats -- with South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt the frontrunners -- and two non-permanent seats.
The Group of Four's proposal would expand the council to 25 seats, adding six permanent seats but without veto power.
Brazil, Germany, India and Japan would hopefully get four of the permanent seats with the other two reserved for Africa.
The group would add four non-permanent seats, with just one for Africa. The two sides said they would negotiate over the next week and then meet again in Geneva on July 25 to discuss progress.
South African envoy Xolisa Mabhongo said member nations have a rare opportunity to make the Security Council more representative and responsive.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the