By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, has taken a sharp and direct criticism of the United Nations, pointing to violations of laws by those who are supposed to uphold the same laws. Speaking two days ago at the Plenary on Extremism and Inequality during the “In Defence of Democracy Initiative” in Barcelona, Spain, Mr. Ramaphosa faulted the conduct and composition of the UN Security Council. “Those who are members of the Security Council are the ones who continue to violate all the laws and the rights,” Ramaphosa said.
According to the South African President, there are many countries that ought to be in the Security Council of the UN. “We have many countries that should be represented in the United Nations Security Council. We have a whole continent of Africa where 1.4 billion people are not represented. We have Latin America. We have big countries like Brazil and big countries like India. We have big countries around the world that must be represented and have a voice.”
He further challenged the new wars across different parts of the globe, especially in the Middle East, describing them as a war of aggression. “The resurgence of unlawful wars of aggression and genocide in places like Palestine are linked to the ideology of supremacy.”
President Ramaphosa then called on the global body to “stand firm on the reform of global institutions like the United Nations. That the United Nations cannot continue to operate in the same way it has in the past. We call on all UN Member States, on all leaders across society, to lend their support to this initiative to ensure that we take forward the struggle to end inequality”, Ramaphosa said.
