Algeria called, on Tuesday, for an end to what it considered a “historic injustice” against the African continent by ensuring its fair representation in the United Nations bodies, especially the Security Council.
This came in Algeria’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly, which was delivered by Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra , and was followed by The Eastern Herald correspondent.
“Today, we are called upon to work to advance the comprehensive reform process of the United Nations system to improve its performance and enhance its efficiency in carrying out the responsibilities entrusted to it under the Charter,” Lamamra said.
He called for “focusing on activating the central role of the General Assembly and reforming the Security Council in order to achieve more transparency and equitable geographical representation and put an end to the historical injustice imposed on the African continent.”
Lamamra touched on the Corona pandemic.
He said, “Despite the great challenges posed by this epidemic, it also gives us a historic opportunity to realize the mistakes of the past and draw lessons, allowing us to move forward in building a prosperous future for all of humanity.”
The African Union summit held in Sirte, Libya in 2005 came out with a declaration called the “Sirte Declaration” calling for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations and ensuring representation of the continent in the Security Council with two permanent and five non-permanent seats.
The council is currently composed of 15 countries, including five permanent members, which are the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia.
In addition to 10 non-permanent seats that are distributed according to geographical distribution, including 3 for the brown continent, and these seats are changed alternately every two years, so that 5 new countries are elected in the even year, and 5 other countries in the odd year.
Each of the permanent members has the right of veto, which allows it to prevent the issuance of any draft resolution, which critics believe serves the interests of those countries and hinders the work of international institutions.
