Cape Town – The fact that Africa with its population of 1.3 billion is not a permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) has been described by a Turkish intellectual visiting Cape Town as reason enough for the reform of the world body.
Echoing Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s slogan, “the world is bigger than five” which was coined to protest the unrepresentative set-up of the UN Security Council (UNSC), University of Ankara Social Sciences Associate Professor Mürsel Bayram said on Tuesday that the time had come for the reform of the security council.
Bayram was speaking at a panel discussion on the “Reform of the UN Security Council: A New Approach to Rebuilding International Order” organised by the Turkish presidency’s directorate of communications and hosted by the Turkish Consulate General.
He said the UN has been discussing reforming its security council for 30 years, since the idea was mooted by then UN Secretary-General Boutros BoutrosGhali in 1992.
Wits University School of Governance Associate Professor William Gumede said there were serious obstacles to the reform of the UNSC and that the consequences of no reform or consensus had the potential for conflict and even possibly a nuclear war.
He said another alternative would be for developing countries such as those from Africa, Asia and Latin
America coming together to form their own version of the United Nations.
Gumede pointed to the rise of groups such as BRICS and how organisations such as the BRICS bank were already challenging the Bretton Woods system of the IMF.
Inclusive Society Institute chief executive Daryl Swanepoel said the UN still reflected the post-1945 consensus and world order and the time had come to modernise it for the sake of equality and transparency.
The panel discussion was attended by, among others, Turkish ambassador Ayşegül Kandaş, Al Jama-ah MP Ganief Hendricks, anti-arms deal and corruption activist Terry Crawford Browne, Western Cape Legislature deputy speaker Beverley Schäfer and Mayco member for urban mobility Rob Quintas.