Africa

Mohamed Bazoum's doctor visits him in a basement prison amid fears for his health after military coup.

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Aug 12 2023 (IPS)

To save our people and our planet from the life-threatening risks of the climate crisis, we must invest in the education of today’s youth. They will be the climate activists, climate scientists, climate innovators, game-changers and leaders of the 21st century green economy.

On International Youth Day, ECW and our global partners urge world leaders in the public and private sectors to ensure today’s youth have the green skills they need to save our planet. The climate-change challenges and the detrimental impact are enormous – severely affecting the planet, as well as basic services and our very survival.

According to the recent position paper by the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO): “Addressing the climate, environment, and biodiversity crises in and through girls’ education”, the climate crisis is impacting the education of 40 million children every year. “Education is an assumed, but hugely undervalued, component of responses to climate change impacts, and efforts to mitigate and adapt to them. It is essential for reducing vulnerability, improving communities’ resilience and adaptive capacity, identifying innovations, and for empowering individuals to be part of the solution to climate and environmental change,” states the position paper.

Recent global estimates from Education Cannot Wait (ECW) – the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies & protracted crises – indicate that the number of crisis-impacted children who urgently need education support has spiked by as much as 25 million over the past year.

According to the new ECW Global Estimate Study: “Climate change interacts with underlying crisis drivers to increase crisis severity and worsen education outcomes. For example, droughts in East Africa deplete livelihoods, boost displacement, and undermine food security, worsening access to education and learning and accelerating protection needs.”

As we ramp up efforts to deliver on the Paris Agreement, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Development Goals at this year’s SDG Summit and Climate Talks (COP28), we must ensure that quality education, as a critical response to climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience – especially for children and adolescents caught in emergencies – is inserted into the climate agenda, funding decisions and global policy. Because, climate change is not a stand-alone sector. It impedes and prevents the education of 224 million children and youth today, and their ability to survive and protect our planet tomorrow.

As we build toward COP28, ECW will work closely with the Green Climate Fund, Global Environment Facility, Adaptation Fund and other multilateral and bilateral funds – along with the private sector – to develop solution-oriented and actionable commitments to ensure that education in emergencies both responds to immediate crises, while also equipping communities with the knowledge and skills they need to adapt, mitigate, and build resilience in the face of an uncertain future.

For today’s youth, this means ensuring they receive a quality education in some of the highest-risk climate disaster areas on the globe. It also means to empower them with the knowledge and skills they need to develop, access and advance the green economy, and have the capacity to lead and make sustainable decisions for their communities and countries.

Youth are the human power of a green economy and of climate action and climate resilience. Financial investments in climate change mean financial investments in the education of 224 million children and adolescents. Empowered with an education, they will save their communities, their countries and our planet. If not them, who? Without them, how?

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

International Youth Day Statement by ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif

The incident is thought to have happened after a suspect demanded his ID back, a police statement says.

A crack had been discovered in one of the walls on Thursday, an official told local media.

By External Source
Aug 12 2023 (IPS-Partners)

 

Today, the world is embarking on a green transition.

A shift towards an environmentally sustainable and climate-friendly world is critical.

This transition depends on the development of green skills in the population.

Especially amongst today’s youth.

These skills include changing and moulding knowledge, values and attitudes.

And they will form abilities needed to develop and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society.

Green skills are relevant for people of all ages.

But they have heightened importance for younger people.

As those who will inherit our current progress, they will contribute to humanity for longer.

But their journey won’t be easy.

They will endure severe climate events for longer.

They will endure prolonged heatwaves, crop failures, droughts and flooding.

They will experience significant changes in economic opportunities due to climate change.

They will lose 40% of the jobs and trades reliant on a healthy planet.

They will also need to mitigate an accelerating technological divide.

67% of youth do not have digital skills due to a lack of basic resources.

This year’s International Youth Day is our opportunity to set a new course:

“Green Skills For Youth: Towards A Sustainable World”.

 

 

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People are already feeling the impact of economic sanctions imposed after a military coup.

Protesters gather in Niamey after a West African bloc approves intervention against coup leaders.

Categorizing countries into “low- and middle-income countries” and “high income countries” is not appropriate for studying healthcare systems and population health. It is misleading to categorize countries for convenience of data analysis and interpretation. Credit: Charles Mpaka/IPS

By Ifeanyi Nsofor and Sowmya R Rao
ABUJA, Aug 11 2023 (IPS)

A recent publication in the journal PLOS Medicine reviewed the relationship between COVID-19 and mental health in eight low- and middle-income countries, collectively referred to as LMICs. As important as this publication is, we are appalled by the widespread use of the term “low- and middle-income countries” utilized in this article, and indeed in the majority of the global health literature and discourse.

This term vastly oversimplifies the relationship both between individual LMICs, and between LMICs and High-income countries (HICs). It isn’t an exaggeration to say that the term is colonial and racist. It divides rather than unites. It is time to change the narrative and use an equitable term to describe countries in the Global South.

Terms such as “low- and middle-income countries” perpetuate these inequities and use the same brush to paint 85% of the world’s population as the same. The Global South has almost six times the population of the Global North, is incredibly diverse, and has pockets of high-, middle- and low-income communities. Even within a single LMIC there is incredible diversity

We are both from the Global South and now work in the Global North. Sowmya is from India while Ifeanyi is from Nigeria. We both live in the U.S. Indeed, Sowmya has lived there for more than 30 years. In our global health careers, we have experienced inequities meted to us and people like us simply because of where we are from.

Terms such as “low- and middle-income countries” perpetuate these inequities and use the same brush to paint 85% of the world’s population as the same. The Global South has almost six times the population of the Global North, is incredibly diverse, and has pockets of high-, middle- and low-income communities. Even within a single LMIC there is incredible diversity.

Without a doubt, categorizing countries into “low- and middle-income countries” and “high income countries” is not appropriate for studying healthcare systems and population health. It is misleading to categorize countries for convenience of data analysis and interpretation.

According to Google Scholar, so far in 2023, over 12,100 publications have used “low-and-middle income countries ” in their titles or in the text. A couple of editorials calling for a change in the classification were published in 2022 and yet, the same journal has over 15,000 publications since 2022 (more than 6000 in 2023) using these terms. Is this classification appropriate for healthcare-related research? We also do not believe that World Bank classification of countries using the gross national income (GNI) is appropriate in this scenario.

Furthermore, funding agencies and peer-reviewed journals perpetuate this problem by requiring the investigators to generalize studies conducted in one country (even one city/town/village) to not only the entire country but beyond that to other “low- and middle-income countries”.

Countries vary in their population sizes, demography, cultures, type of governments, education systems, health care policies, health care access, diseases, and socio-economic problems. Summarizing data across these countries and studying them as a unit to find a one-size-fits-all solution undermines the problems.

For instance, Nigeria has an estimated population of more than 200 million, more than 250 ethnicities that speak over 500 languages. On the other hand, India is the most populous country in the world, with a population of over 1.4 billion. It has more than 2000 ethnic groups that speak over 19,000 languages or dialects.

First, begin to rectify this issue by ensuring that studies are customized to each country so appropriate policies can be implemented to improve healthcare in the country being studied. Most problems and solutions are local and must be studied in this context.

Second, funding institutions and peer-reviewed journals should not insist on generalizability of the results beyond the targeted populations but focus on the possibility of the solutions being adaptable to different populations and situations.

Studies that can positively impact these populations even if small are worth being conducted and published. It may then be further researched and adapted as necessary in different settings but that should not be a condition for funding or publishing.

Third, knowledge transfer should be bi-directional and not unidirectional as is currently done. Therefore, countries in the Global North should be open to learning from solutions found in the Global South (what are also termed as “resource-limited or resource-poor” countries).

There are many lessons in this regard: African Union’s coordination of country COVID-19 responses through the Africa Centre for Disease Control, and diverse experiences on managing epidemics in the Global South.

Finally, researchers must tap into the power of local knowledge. This means including Ministries of Health and local investigators to identify the main problems that need studying and finding solutions to mitigate them – another step towards creating equity.

Having countries from the Global South involved with setting study priorities and also funding portions of studies will ensure that they are vested in the process and are equal partners in studies that impact their own populations. Indeed, no country has infinite resources as was seen during the recent COVID-19 pandemic and any solution that uses the available resources efficiently should be welcomed.

LMICs and HICs are vestiges of colonialism. They divide instead of unite by making the most populous parts of the global community inferior to the least populous. Most importantly, they perpetuate inequities which pose serious consequences for global solidarity.

Using ‘Global South’ versus ‘Global North’ to refer to LMICs and HICs respectively in global research vocabulary is the most equitable thing to do.

 

Dr. Ifeanyi M. Nsofor, MBBS, MCommH (Liverpool) is Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute, Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at George Washington University, 2006 Ford Foundation International Fellow.

Dr. Sowmya R Rao is a Senior Research Scientist with the Department of Global Health at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and a biostatistician primarily interested in global health disparities.

President Cyril Ramaphosa approved his release, extending the same to more than 9,000 low-risk prisoners.

Credit: UNICEF Sujan

By Robert Jenkins, Lauren Rumble and Verena Knaus
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 11 2023 (IPS)

Did you know that the power of computers has been doubling roughly every two years since the 1960s? Every day it seems there’s a new app or piece of tech that unlocks new and efficient ways to do things; to better engage with the world, or with learning.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the longstanding gender digital divide. Even though digital tech can be used to continue education at scale and is rapidly becoming core to the educational enterprise, it only benefits those who can access it.

And millions of girls often don’t have access to digital technology for many reasons: because communities, schools or families think that technology is a male-only domain, because of online safety risks, because they have been uprooted from their homes or forced to leave school before they learn to use computers, or because they never go to school in the first place.

Even when girls can access digital learning, the content may be rife with harmful gender norms – just as it often is in textbooks. Stereotypes are perpetuated and girls’ education suffers.

Providing access to the tech hardware can make an enormous difference, but it is not a silver bullet. Digital learning isn’t just putting existing materials on a screen instead of on a chalkboard or in a textbook.

It is about taking the opportunity to make education systems better and more responsive to the gender-specific needs of children and young people and equipping teachers with the skills to do so. It can only do that if we’re intentional about how we want to use it.

Recently, the Transforming Education Summit (TES) has committed to doing just that: to “harness the power of the digital revolution to ensure quality education is provided as a public good and a human right, with a particular focus on the most marginalized.”

Unlocking the power of digital learning for these children and young people, especially girls, relies on three keys:

• Connecting children to digital learning irrespective of their gender identity, or where they live or where they come from, UNICEF is working to connect every school to the Internet by 2030 through the Giga initiative.
• Developing and adapting high quality learning content so that it’s context-specific, curriculum-aligned, and accessible to all. UNICEF with UNESCO and partners launched Gateways to Public Digital Learning, a new global initiative to ensure that every learner, teacher, and family – especially the most marginalized – can easily access and use high-quality digital education content. To facilitate access to high quality content, UNICEF’s Learning Passport is helping meet the specific needs of learners- especially those forced to leave their homes – and educators in over 28 countries reaching three million children.
• Equipping teachers with the capacity to use digital technology to improve learning as well as with gender-responsive pedagogical skills so they can support children in all their diversity to develop the skills they need for school, life, and work – including supporting girls and young women to develop digital literacy.

One way UNICEF is forging this third key is through the new Gender Responsive Digital Pedagogies guide for educators. The Guide uses practical exercises to help teachers produce gender-responsive lesson plans, learning materials, and instruction, as well as guidance on protecting girls and boys from online bullying, violence, and sexual violence – critical skills in the digital age.

It also outlines strategies to engage parents and caregivers in their child’s learning using digital tools. In Lebanon, UNICEF has worked closely with the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD) – a national organization charged with modernization and development of education, based on educational planning – to integrate part of the guide into their teachers’ training curricula.

This national uptake reflects our commitment:

We want to ensure that, as the world accelerates the use of digital technologies for education, we don’t simply carry over existing biases and harmful gender norms into teaching and learning.

With digital tech, learning tools can easily be replaced or updated – unlike printed materials. Educators can thus hone materials to be context-specific and, critically, remove harmful gender references and stereotypes from curricula.

How teachers interact with girls and boys can model more equal and gender-transformative expectations of themselves and each other.

Digital learning has the advantage of being mobile, opening doors for alternative learning pathways for children and adolescents who are excluded or need flexible arrangements.

It can make quality learning accessible to children who speak minority languages and children and young people on the move – especially important for girls on the move, some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

In situations that are otherwise hostile and uncertain, digital learning can be a way to help children to feel included and prepare them to succeed in school, work, and life.

Ensuring that girls’ access to digital technology is keeping pace with its proliferation and technological changes is and will not be easy. But it is essential.

The new Guide is a global public good – a critical building block for action on the TES commitments. Furthermore, as the 67th Conference on the Status of Women focuses on how innovation and education in the digital can promote gender equality, policymakers can be catalyst for digital learning.

To keep pace, our learning tools, practices, and policies need to stay up to date to match the technology – and champion the rights of all children, in all their diversity.

Robert Jenkins is the Global Director of Education and Adolescent Development at UNICEF; Lauren Rumble is the Associate Director of Gender Equality at UNICEF; Verena Knaus is the Global Chief of Migration and Displacement at UNICEF.

Source: UNICEF

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Peacekeepers from the Nigerien contingent of MINUSMA provide security in eastern Mali. In June 2023, the Security Council unanimously approved the complete withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces in Mali, although it will take six months for the final “blue helmets” to depart. Credit: MINUSMA/Harandane Dicko

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 11 2023 (IPS)

Going back to the 16th century and continuing through the late 1960s, France was described as the world’s second largest colonial power—just behind the British Empire.

As the old saying goes: The sun would never set over the British Empire because God wouldn’t trust an Englishman in the dark. But would that also apply to the French colonial empire?

The military coups in three former French colonies — Burkina Faso, Mali and more recently Niger – are perhaps an indication of the beginning of the end of French post-colonial and neo-colonial ties to West Africa.

The three military leaders are turning towards Russia and the Russian mercenary group Wagner for new political, economic and military alliances.

The headline in a New York Times article last week read: “Waning Influence for France, the Colonizer that Stayed in West Africa “

The coup in Niger, a landlocked country of about 25 million people, is likely to result in the departure of more than 2,500 Western troops, including 1,100 Americans, who were stationed in the West African country to battle anti-US and anti-Western militant groups.

In Niger, there was also strong public support for the Russians, with demonstrators waving Russian flags.

Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco, told IPS many Africans harbor understandable resentment towards French neocolonialism and their local collaborators.

“Unfortunately, despite the lack of a colonial legacy, the Russian influence is even worse. They are backing some of the region’s worst warlords, reactionary military leaders, and criminal elements,” he said.

Vijay Prashad, Director, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, told IPS: “Yes, there is a definite turn in the mood in the Sahel. I saw this about four years ago. People had soured over the arrival of French troops supposedly to stem the al-Qaeda advance, but unable to do so, and yet, civilian casualties abounded.”

Then, the feeling that the West is plundering resources and preventing migrants from going through the region. The sentiment was all over the place.

Absent a promising political path, it is clear that the military was going to act, this military that is run by young men from rural areas and from lower middle class urban families. They know the price paid by their countries and they no longer wish to pay it, he added.

Asked for his comments, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters: “I have heard questions about these protests, sometimes in this briefing room, and sometimes you see people assume that because you see people on the streets it is an expression of actual support rather than people who might have been paid to show up at protests”.

Playing down the pro-Russian demonstrators, he said: “It does seem odd to me that if your country is suffering an attempted military takeover, the idea that the first thing anyone would do is run to a store and buy a Russian flag. That strikes me as somewhat an unlikely scenario.”

Miller also said that Yevgeniy Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, was publicly celebrating the events in Niger and “we certainly see Wagner take advantage of this type of situation whenever it occurs in Africa”.

“We, as I’ve stated before, did not see any role by Wagner in the instigation of this attempted takeover, and we have not seen any Wagner military presence as of yet in Niger. I don’t have any specific Wagner activities to – that I can make public at this point, but we saw Yevgeniy Prigozhin publicly celebrating what’s happened. And as I said, it did seem a very odd event that we had a bunch of Russian flags show up at so-called protests – in support of the junta leaders,” he added..

Perhaps the longest and bitterest battles against French colonialism took place in North Africa during the Algerian war of independence.

That battle was a major armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (NLF) from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria winning its independence from France and represented “the most recent and bloodiest example of France’s colonial history on the African continent”, with approximately 1.5 million Algerians killed and millions more displaced in the eight-year struggle for independence.

A posting on the Foreign Policy website August 8 said Niger’s coup leaders had one week to relinquish power and reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum or else face military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

At midnight on Sunday, that deadline expired without Bazoum being reinstated. Now, Niger and its neighbors are preparing for possible war—and ECOWAS, which plans to hold a second emergency summit is questioning whether issuing its unprecedented threat was a smart idea to begin with.

On Sunday, Niger’s junta government sent troop reinforcements to the capital, Niamey, and closed Niger’s airspace to brace for ECOWAS’s potential invasion. A senior U.S. diplomat held “frank and at times quite difficult” talks on Monday with junta leaders, who rejected calls to restore democracy, according to Foreign Policy.

Asked about the Russian influence in Niger, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters August 7 “for sure we have concerns when we see something like the Wagner Group possibly manifesting itself in different parts of the Sahel, and here’s why we’re concerned: because every single place that this group, Wagner Group, has gone, death, destruction, and exploitation have followed.”

He said insecurity has gone up, not down. It hasn’t been a response to the needs of the countries in question for greater security.

“I think what happened and what continues to happen in Niger was not instigated by Russia or by Wagner, but to the extent that they try to take advantage of it – and we see a repeat of what’s happened in other countries, where they’ve brought nothing but bad things in their wake – that wouldn’t be good,” Blinken declared.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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BBC research reveals that women in Africa spend up to 13% of their income on menstrual products.

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Overfishing is harming the informal traders who rely on it for income. CREDIT: Marko Phiri/IPS

By Marko Phiri
BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE, Aug 10 2023 (IPS)

Zimbabwe’s ballooning informal sector has, in recent years, spawned the over-exploitation of the country’s natural resources, with the fisheries taking some of the most felt battering.

Amidst challenges brought by economic hardships, fisheries—for long imagined to be an infinite resource by hawkers and fishermen—are providing women with livelihoods against odds brought by climate change and competition from male fishmongers who go into the water.

Selling fish has for years been a source of income for women, but with current unemployment levels, more and more women are trying their hand at anything that will provide income.

According to the International Labour Organisation, out of more than five million informal traders in Zimbabwe, 65 percent are women, throwing more women into sectors such as fisheries that offer hope for steady incomes.

However, comes with its own downside.

Demand for aquaculture produce has not slowed amid dwindling fish stocks in the country’s dams, according to the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, Climate, and Rural Development.

Officials say because consumers have no idea about underwater resource sustainability and management, the more nets are cast into the country’s waters, the less efforts are done to conserve the country’s fisheries.

Long touted as a cheap source of nutrition, with the price of fish bought directly from dams cheaper than that sold in supermarkets and butcheries, this has resulted in unintended consequences.

Janet Dube is a frustrated single breadwinner in Bulawayo.

She makes a living visiting dams surrounding the city of Bulawayo and used to travel as far as the Zambezi to purchase fish stock but now says she has watched as a growing number of people, especially women try their luck buying and selling fish.

And with huge numbers entering the fish trade, it has meant diminishing returns as fish in the country’s waterways are not being repopulated fast enough.

“I don’t get as many fish I used from my suppliers even in dams around the city where you do not have to travel to faraway places such as Binga to buy fish for resale in Bulawayo,” Dube said.

Sitting on the pavement of Bulawayo’s central business district, in the country’s second city, Dube hawks fresh bream fish and laments that although her stock is low, she still must worry about the fish going bad because of electricity power cuts.

Zimbabwe is in the midst of a long-running energy deficit that has not spared anyone, with the fisheries sector feeling the strain.

“I only come to sell fish in the central business district late afternoon to avoid losses as fish goes bad pretty fast,” Dube told IPS.

However, for other fishmongers, selling dried bream and kapenta has become the answer to these challenges.

At another bustling city pavement, Gracious Maruziva sells dried kapenta sourced in the Zambezi Valley.

“I don’t go there myself but buy from some people who travel to Binga regularly, but they don’t supply as regularly as they used to,” Maruziva said.

The reason: Her suppliers are struggling to bring in the once-abundant delicacy.

“It’s increasingly becoming tough selling fish as they say they are also not getting enough from their suppliers in the Zambezi,” she added.

Local researchers and agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have raised concerns about the lack of sustainability efforts in the country’s fisheries sector, that in recent years has experienced its own gold rush of sorts.

For years women in Bulawayo have travelled long distances to buy fish in bulk, creating long value chains along the way, but it is the current challenges that include low fish stocks in the dams and power outages that interrupt refrigeration that is exposing the risks that come with the fish business.

And with those challenges has been little success in sustainability and conservation of natural resources, experts say.

“We have seen it in the resource-rich communities through our trade justice work communities carry what is known as the ‘resource curse’,” said John Maketo, programmes manager at the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development.

“Instead of adequately benefiting from the availability of a natural resource around them, communities become overburdened with the negative consequences of having it,” Maketo said at a time artisanal fishermen and miners are blamed for anything stripping dams of fish and illegally exploiting gold claims across the country.

However, there are concerns that in the absence of robust conservation efforts, the country’s fisheries could adversely affect rural communities relying on natural resources.

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) is on record lamenting the unregulated new entrants into the fisheries sector, a development that has further threatened already low fish stocks in the country’s dams.

According to FAO’s FISH4ACP, an initiative that seeks the economic and sustainability of fisheries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, Zimbabwe has over 12,000 dams, noting that despite this abundance, the sector continues to struggle.

To address this, FAO is “supporting an economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable fish farming sector” amid weak regulatory mechanisms and sound implementation of existing fishing quotas.

For women who find themselves hawking fish in the streets of Bulawayo, the consequence of that struggle is being felt in their daily takings.

“Fish is profitable, provided I get constant supplies. For now, I’m making do with what I can get,” said Dube.

Note: This story was supported by the Pulitzer Centre.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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A Security Council meeting in progress. Credit: United Nations

By Tim Murithi
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Aug 10 2023 (IPS)

The world’s institutions are ill-prepared and poorly designed to effectively address global challenges such as major power conflicts, pandemics, the climate catastrophe, refugee crises, violent extremism, illicit profiteering from natural resources, and the regulation of artificial intelligence systems.

In particular, the United Nations, which was created to address the problems of the world in 1945, is no longer fit for purpose. The multilateral organization has outlived its usefulness; there is an urgent need to design a global institution that is reflective of the twenty-first century.

The UN was created with a recognition of the limitations of the League of Nations in mind. In particular, the League was unable to prevent the conquest of Europe by Nazi Germany and the Japanese invasion of China.

History is repeating itself in the form of the powerful Permanent Five (P5) members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) repeatedly ignoring the legal provisions of the UN Charter and weakening the legitimacy of this international institution, by invading countries in contravention of international law.

The dysfunctionality of the UNSC was exposed once more on February 24, 2022, when Russia was simultaneously chairing the Presidency of the Council and launching an illegal invasion of Ukraine. This war is impeding global stability. Ukrainians suffer the most from this conflict, which also inflicts great damage to Global South countries’ economies and human security.

Yet, other major conflicts are also looming, for example between the United States and China over Taiwan, and it is unlikely that the planet can endure another full-blown major-power war.

A confrontation between two nuclear weapons-bearing permanent members of the UNSC would leave us all in an extremely precarious state of affairs, but there are currently no effective mechanisms to constrain the UNSC’s permanent members’ actions.

The founders of the UN recognized that the moment would arrive when it became imperative to transform the organization, and they included a practical mechanism to review the body’s Charter.

According to Article 109 (1), a UN Charter Review Conference should have been convened 10 years after the signing of the document. Today, it could be initiated by a majority vote of the members of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and by a vote of any seven members of the UNSC, according to Article 109 (3).

This provision means that the P5 members cannot veto any proposed UN Charter Review Conference. In practice, a dozen or more UN member states drawn from different continents would need to create a “Coalition of the Willing” within the UNGA, which would have to draft a Resolution to trigger and launch a UN Charter Review Conference.

Such a Review Conference could, through the collective decision of the members of the UNGA, identify the key issues that need to be addressed, including reform of the UNSC. The Review Conference could also adopt a recommendation to substantially alter the UN Charter and introduce completely new provisions, including even a change in the name of the institution.

More than 60 percent of the issues discussed by the UNSC are focused on Africa, yet the continent does not have any representation among the P5 members of the Council.

Given the fact that the P5 can veto all manner of decisions before the Council, it is a travesty of justice at its most basic level that African countries can only participate in key deliberations and decision-making processes as non-permanent members of the Council.

UNSC negotiations and decision-making processes are, in effect, the highest manifestation of unfairness in the international system. If achieving fairness in negotiations among states is the preferred route to global legitimacy, then a fundamental transformation of the UNSC and the elimination of the veto for the P5 is a necessary pre-requisite action.

Tim Murithi is Head of the Peacebuilding Interventions Programme, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, and Professor of African Studies, University of Free State and Stellenbosch University, South Africa, @tmurithi12

Source Stimson Center Washington DC

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Deposed president Mohamed Bazoum's party has also claimed he is being detained under "cruel" conditions.

Gen Tchiani has triggered a major crisis by overthrowing the president he was meant to guard.