Kenyan President William Ruto called on Thursday for Africa to be granted permanent representation on the UN Security Council, telling the General Assembly that the continent has been excluded for too long from decisions on global peace and security.
Delivering Kenya’s national statement during the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Ruto said the council should be reformed to grant Africa “equitable and permanent representation,” including the full rights and privileges that come with permanent membership, a status currently held only by the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.
Ruto argued that the United Nations had helped advance peace, self-determination and human progress since its founding but had also fallen short of its founding promise, pointing to unresolved conflicts, inconsistent enforcement of international law, and inequality he said remains embedded across global institutions. He said organizations that fail to reflect the populations whose cooperation they depend on will eventually lose the trust needed to function effectively.
The remarks add to a longstanding push by African governments and other developing nations for structural reform of the Security Council, whose permanent membership has remained unchanged since the UN’s creation in 1945 despite significant shifts in global population and economic power. Momentum behind such reform efforts has grown this year amid criticism that the council has struggled to respond effectively to overlapping crises, including the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Beyond Security Council reform, Ruto used his address to press for greater international investment in Africa, expanded development of artificial intelligence capacity on the continent, and changes to the global financial system, themes he and other African leaders have raised repeatedly during this year’s General Assembly session.
Earlier in the week, Ruto had struck a different tone in separate remarks defending the United Nations’ record, crediting the multilateral system with contributing to a more than 50 percent reduction in global deaths among children under five since 2000, along with progress on disease eradication, education access and clean water provision.
No immediate response to Ruto’s Security Council remarks was issued by the council’s five permanent members.
