NEW YORK – As Liberia continues to lobby and campaign with the 193 United Nations (UN) members states for their support in the country’s quest to acquire a UN Security Council (UNSC) non-permanent seat, Liberia’s Foreign Minister recently in New York gave an exclusive interview to GZERO MEDIA senior writer, John Haltiwanger on the live program – Global Stage.
As Africans countries push for permanent representation on the UNSC, Foreign Minister Beysolow Nyanti has called for reform, challenging the Council’s control by the wealthy at the United Nations during her appearance on the Global Stage program at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Read below Q & A excerpts of the interview:
GZERO MEDIA senior writer, John Haltiwanger: There are growing calls from African countries for permanent representation on the UN Security Council. This is not the first time that we have heard calls for reform but they seem particular at this moment. What do you think that is?
Liberia’s Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti: I think the time is right for the strong calls because many African countries have had different experiences that have led many of us to believe that the current configuration for global governance on peace and security no longer fits the purpose.
The needs of countries during conflicts, post-conflicts during reconstruction are not being met in line with the expectations and it is important that voices are heard – we talk about leaving no one behind. And if the countries that are affected don’t feel that they have adequate, just and equitable representation, then there is a problem.
GZERO MEDIA senior writer, John Haltiwanger: Do you think that African countries should be given permanent seats on the Security Council, and if so, how they should be selected?
Liberia’s Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti: I know that they should be given permanent seats because Africa is the source of most of the resources of the world, and Africa is very critical to global governance, to multilateralism, and you cannot have a rules-based world order that does not reflect all of the world’s people adequately, so it needs to happen. And if permanent seats are selected, we have the African Union (AU) and the AU will decide how African Union will be represented at the UN Security Council.
GZERO MEDIA senior writer, John Haltiwanger: The US has voiced support for giving two permanent seats to the African countries on the UN Security Council but without veto power. Without that power wouldn’t these roles largely be symbolic? Do you need the veto power to actually have strong influence on the Security Council?
Liberia’s Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti: First and foremost, we need a total overhaul. We need a total overhaul that means looking at overall the structure, the principles, looking overall at the functioning of the Security Council. It is not just a matter of seats but how will you be seated at the table, and not just matter of speaking, will you be heard at the table? It not just being heard, will there be actions at the table so there is a lot to look at. So, I think the issue of veto or non-veto is not the issue. It is about overhauling the entire system. I would like to be a part of a process that reviews the entire peacekeeping operations around the world. The system we have today, the solutions and the tools were made after War World II and they are not fitting the purpose for the current world that we live in and I believe very strongly that we need to go back to the beginning and to the foundation and look at what is there and look at what needs to be totally overhauled and reformed.
GZERO MEDIA senior writer, John Haltiwanger: So, a lot of critics view the Security Council as effectively a paralyzed institution when you look at the crisis like the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, critics would say they have been unable to take substantive actions to respond to conflicts like these. Do you think reform could help, going back to the drawing board as you have described, could that help to rebuild trust and legitimacy in the Security Council as an institution?
Liberia’s Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti: The UN needs to lead by examples, and the UN needs to stand by the principles that it holds others accountable to. You can’t be telling nations, least developed counties, least developing countries that they must be inclusive and that you must have equitable systems and all these things where the highest body at the UN is very skewed in terms of who has a voice and who can say what happens around the world and then can choose not to live by what they are telling others to do. I am sorry it does not work like that anymore. And we need to be accountable, all of us have to be accountable and not only some of us.
GZERO MEDIA senior writer, John Haltiwanger: Thank you for being here with us today, but to wrap things up we can talk about reform but there are some very realistic and real obstacles to reform, what would you identify as the biggest obstacles and how can they be overcome?
Liberia’s Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti: Imbalance of power. The big gets bigger, the smaller gets smaller. And until we all raise a voice together to find a balance it’s not going to change. And so, for me I think the important conversation to have, is speaking truth to power, and be able to speak truth to power in a way that we can be able to hold people accountable and to say, to those countries who feel that they are bigger than the rest of the world, it stops here. And we all need space and if the space isn’t big enough make the space bigger.
