UN Security Council has Failed to Protect Africa From Violence, Unrest- Oxfam Report

GOOBJOOG NEWS: The UN Security Council has failed to ‘protect African populations from violence and unrest,’ a report by the international campaign group Oxfam revealed, noting that instead, the permanent 5 have used their veto powers to advance national geopolitical interests.

The report, Vetoing Humanity says that the Security Council has over the years passed a series of resolutions but have not ‘worked effectively.’

The report, which is based on a study of 23 of the world’s most protracted conflicts over the past decade – 14 of which are in Africa noted that 354 out of the over 450 passed resolutions were on African conflicts but did not help in resolving these conflicts. The Council has since passed 53 resolutions on Somalia.

According to the report,  the five permanent members of the UNSC – China, France, Russia, the UK and the US – are exploiting their exclusive voting and negotiating powers to suit their geopolitical interests. In doing so, they are undermining the Council’s ability to maintain international peace and security.

The report specifically singles out Russia and the United States as particularly responsible for abusing their veto power by blocking progress toward peace in Ukraine, Syria, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.

It adds that despite Africa being home to 1.4 billion people and contributing 54 members to the Council, it does not have permanent representation in the UN Security Council.

“The UN Security Council was built in a bygone colonial time and is marred by deep inequalities that do not reflect the realities of today,” Oxfam in Africa Director, Ms. Fati N’Zi Hassane said. “Despite bearing the brunt of both climate change and ongoing conflicts, Africa’s voice remains muted in the corridors of global power. This has robbed Africa of opportunities for peace and sustainable development.”

 The report critiques the Council members’ powers of “pen-holding”, which allow them to lead on negotiations and direct how resolutions are drafted, tabled, or ignored – again, too often according to their own interests.

While France and the UK have not used their veto in the last decade, they and the US have held the pen on two-thirds of resolutions relating to the 23 protracted crises studied by Oxfam. France, for example, has held the pen on several African countries’ resolutions, including Mali’s. However, in 2023, Mali objected to French pen-holding given what it considered “acts of aggression and destabilization” there.

Many other initiatives are not even written up or tabled because they would inevitability be vetoed, the report says. As a result, the 23 crises studied by Oxfam’s report are being treated in wildly different ways. Nearly half of them have been largely neglected with fewer than five resolutions each over the last decade, and not a single resolution concerning Ethiopia could be tabled despite being one of the deadliest conflicts of the 21st century with 380,000 battle-related deaths.

Oxfam calls for ‘wholesale reform of the UN Security Council’ ahead of the Summit of the Future which aims to envision a revitalized UN.