O n 16 October the General Assembly of the United Nations elected South Africa, Italy, Belgium and Indonesia to serve as non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for two-year terms starting on 1 January 2007. As we go to press, voting is still continuing to elect one representative from Latin America and the Caribbean. When we take our seat, South Africa will join the Republic of Congo and Ghana as the third African non-permanent member of the Security Council.
South Africa was voted into the Security Council by 186 countries, well beyond the two-thirds (125) that is required to secure the UNSC seat, with no country voting against or abstaining (Italy was similarly voted into the UNSC by 186 countries).
When we were elected, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma issued a statement welcoming this development. She said:
“South Africa is greatly privileged and honoured by its election by the general membership of the United Nations to serve on the UN Security Council in a non-permanent capacity. In this regard, South Africa extends its gratitude to the peoples and government of Africa and the world for the confidence bestowed upon us to serve the people of our continent and indeed the world in the UN Security Council.
“Accordingly, and on behalf of President Thabo Mbeki, the government and people of South Africa we humbly accept the mandate thrust upon us by the peoples of Africa, the South and the world in general in electing us to this position of responsibility. We do so conscious and convinced that the multilateral system of global governance remains the only hope for challenges facing humanity today.
“As a consequence thereof, we declare our readiness and preparedness to serve the peoples of Africa, the South and the World in this capacity. South Africa, commits itself thus, fully cognisant of the challenges that will certainly arise from the responsibilities that will attend to the membership of the UN Security Council as an instrument of our collective peace and security.
“In pursuance thereof, South Africa will strive in conjunction with the African Union, to create synergies between the work of the African Union Peace and Security Council and the UN Security Council with a view to the prevention of outbreaks of violence and conflict in the continent of Africa.
“We shall work with all members of the Security Council, and regional organisations in pursuit of peace and stability in all regions of the world especially in the Middle East. In addition, South Africa shall continue to work with all members of the United Nations General Assembly in pursuit of the comprehensive reform of the United Nations including the reform and expansion of the United Nations Security Council.”
This Statement correctly identifies our country’s approach to the work we will have to do as members of the UNSC over the two years 2007 and 2008. It correctly reiterates our long-established position that “the multilateral system of global governance remains the only hope for challenges facing humanity today”. The UNSC occupies an important and unique place in this multilateral system, with its tasks defined in the UN Charter.
The Charter says: “In order to ensure prompt and effective action by the United Nations, its Members confer on the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and agree that in carrying out its duties under this responsibility, the Security Council acts on their behalf. In discharging these duties the Security Council shall act in accordance with the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations.”
Of fundamental importance to the tasks that face the UNSC is the need to respect the Principles reflected in the Preamble of the UN Charter. This Preamble says:
“We the Peoples of the United Nations determined:
All the foregoing explains the critical importance of the UNSC in terms of ensuring that the peoples of the world live in conditions of peace and security. This is not just a matter of peace keeping through the deployment of UN military and other forces in cases where war has broken out, important as this task is.
In all the work we have done especially on our continent since we attained our freedom 12 years ago, to contribute to the achievement of the goal of peace and security in Africa, we have indeed proceeded from the position that it is very important to address the underlying specific causes of conflict and war in any country faced with this problem.
In many instances these include the issues mentioned in the Preamble of the UN Charter, such as fundamental human rights, equality within and between nations, respect for international law and the struggle for access to the resources that everybody needs to achieve “social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom”, as the Preamble says.
In this regard, a 2000 Report of a Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, which was chaired by Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Algeria, said:
“There is a pressing need for the United Nations and its Member States to establish a more effective system for long-term conflict prevention. Prevention is clearly far more preferable for those who would otherwise suffer the consequences of war, and is a less costly option for the international community than military action, emergency humanitarian relief or reconstruction after a war has run its course. As the Secretary-General noted in his recent Millennium Report (A/54/2000), ‘every step taken towards reducing poverty and achieving broad-based economic growth is a step toward conflict prevention’.
“In many cases of internal conflict, ‘poverty is coupled with sharp ethnic or religious cleavages’, in which minority rights ‘are insufficiently respected [and] the institutions of government are insufficiently inclusive’. Long-term preventive strategies in such instances must therefore work ‘to promote human rights, to protect minority rights and to institute political arrangements in which all groups are represented...Every group needs to become convinced that the state belongs to all people’”
Because of the nature of the mandate of the UNSC, members of the Council have to be on standby to attend meetings of the Council on a 24-hour basis, given that conflict that threatens international peace and security may begin to emerge, break out in full force or escalate anywhere in the world, at any time.
This means that our government will have to build up the necessary all-round capacity both in Pretoria and New York in particular, to enable our government and its diplomatic service properly to discharge their responsibilities, so that our country does everything necessary to meet its obligations as a member of the Council.
This means that we must put ourselves in a position fully to understand each and every issue that might come under the purview or is already on the agenda of the UNSC. It is only on this basis that we will be able to take properly informed and independent positions on any of these issues.
In addition, as our Minister of Foreign Affairs pointed out in her Statement, we will also have to take the necessary measures to ensure that we regularly consult the African Union and other regional organisations, especially on issues that affect these regions.
Currently, for instance, the African issues of which the UNSC remains seized include Western Sahara, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia and Eritrea with regard to their border dispute.
There are, of course, other important issues that continue to serve on the agenda of the UNSC, to whose resolution we will have to make our own contribution. These include Palestine and Israel, Lebanon and Israel, Iraq, Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Haiti and Cyprus.
The mere listing of these issues brings sharply into focus the challenge we will face from 1 January 2007, properly to live up to the inspiring confidence in our country shown by Africa and the rest of the world community when they decided at the UN General Assembly, virtually unanimously, that our country should serve on the UNSC as a non-permanent member.
During the first twelve years of our liberation, Southern Africa, Africa and the rest of the international community have repeatedly shown their confidence in democratic South Africa as a reliable partner in the global struggle for a just and peaceful world.
Accordingly, among others, we have served as Chair of the South African Development Community (SADC) and the AU, Chair of the Commonwealth, Co-Chair of the Africa-Asia Forum, President of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Chair of the G77 + China. We have also hosted various important international conferences, such as the founding conference of the AU, the Commonwealth, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the UN Conference on Racism, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
This global confidence in democratic South Africa has also found expression among others in the area of sport. We have accordingly hosted the Soccer African Cup of Nations, the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF), the Rugby and Cricket World Cups, and the golf President’s Cup. Of course, we have now been given the responsibility to host the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.
Within the African context, we have acted on behalf of the continent with regard to Lesotho, Comoros, Burundi, the DRC, Côte d’Ivoire and Sudan. We are also privileged to host the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Secretariat and the Pan African Parliament.
Our virtually unanimous election by the nations of the world, organised as Members of the UN General Assembly, to serve as a non-permanent member of the UNSC has confirmed and underlined the confidence that the peoples of the world have in democratic South Africa.
What this means is that we must continue to do the things in our country that have given the nations of the world confidence in our country as an important force in the struggle to build a new world order that would stand for the good of all humanity.
These include our deep seated respect for democracy, human rights, peace and stability in our country, non-racialism and non-sexism, our commitment to eradicate poverty and otherwise respond continuously to the challenge to ensure the upliftment of the poor in our society and the world, the success of the African renaissance, peace in the world and the peaceful resolution of international disputes, an equitable world order, and ensuring that globalisation serves the interests especially of the poor of the world.
As a movement we have always sought faithfully to honour our commitments to our people. Throughout the 94 years of our existence, we have sustained the loyalty and attachment of the masses of our people in good measure on the basis that our leaders and members have opted voluntarily to work as members and leaders of the ANC solely and exclusively to serve the interests of all the people of our country, with no expectation for any personal or selfish reward.
Similarly, the peoples of Africa and the world have, in the ways that we have mentioned already, consistently demonstrated their confidence in our country despite the fact that our democracy is a mere 12 years old. Again, this confidence is based on the understanding that we say and have said for 12 years about a just world, and what we have done in this regard is genuinely meant, with absolutely no intention to gain any selfish benefit for our country.
The responsibility facing our government as a member of the UNSC, to live up to the expectations of the African people and the rest of the world community, does not rest solely with the government.
It is a national task to which we must respond in unity, inspired by the sentiment native to all our people, encapsulated in the spirit of ubuntu, that with regard to all humanity, we are truly one another’s brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.
Pride in ourselves and our country and a shared and new patriotism must surely tell all of us, regardless of any political or other affiliation and identity, that when we end our privileged tour of duty as a member of the 15-member UNSC on 31 December 2008, we will be immensely honoured to hear all humanity saying – thank you South Africa for everything you did to strive to make ours a better and safer world for all!
