THE plight of Palestinians, as highlighted by their leader Mahmoud Abbas at the recent AU summit in Addis Ababa, aptly demonstrates the extent to which the UN Charter is defective.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon might have sounded more concerned about African leaders’ ‘undemocratic’ practices which must have started not earlier than the 1960s and less about the Palestinian problem which was created by America and the West in 1948.
Although the creation of Israel is said to have received the United Nations General Assembly blessing, it was at the behest of America.
The expansionist policy of Israel has seen the Palestinians being driven out of their homeland by the Zionists, who are aided by America.
Attempts to find a solution to the Palestinian problem show the glaring inadequacies of the United Nations.
The United Nations General Assembly has passed several resolutions compelling Israel to move back to the 1948 borders.
Non-compliance has been total.
And this is because all these resolutions have been vetoed by America, France and Britain in the Security Council.
It is the composition of the Permanent Members of the Security Council which is a bone of contention and not necessarily its powers per se.
The war logic at the end of the Second World War was that the most militarily powerful then were superior nations whose collective will should be binding.
Thus the voices of America, Britain, France, Russia and China, through the United Nations Security Council were therefore final.
The contributions of the other 192 members of the General Assembly is academic as power lies in the Permanent Members of the Security Council.
But power dynamics have radically changed since 1945 when the United Nations was formed.
No wonder the outgoing AU Chairman President Robert Mugabe emphasised at the recent Addis Ababa Summit that the time for Africa’s ceremonial visits to the United Nations must come to an end.
Surely it defies logic that in 2016 a continent the size of Africa is denied permanent membership of the powerful Security Council.
The call to reform the UN by having at least two Security Council permanent members with veto powers from Africa is not new.
Those so-called champions of democracy from the West, who are the architects of the present format of the UN, should realise equality is a key tenet of democracy.
What kind of equality denies a continent of 1,1 billion representation in the powerful Security Council just because it did not have nuclear weapons capacity in 1945.
The challenge is for African leaders to unite as they fight to have the UN reformed.
President Mugabe must have sent a chilling message to the UN Secretary-General when he told him of Africa’s determination.
“We will fight for our own identity, for our own integrity and personality as Africans,” the outgoing AU Chairman gave this message to Ban Ki-Moon, for onward transmission to his superiors.
The message might not easily make sense to Africa’s colonisers who control the UN.
The stereotype Africans as slaves, with no right to be their equals still guides their interpretation of world events.
Just as the British and Americans get their inspiration from Winston Churchill and George Washington respectively, Africa also has its leaders like Ben Bella, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah and Robert Mugabe.
So President Mugabe’s warning that Africa will at some point pull out of the UN en masse, if the continent is not given a permanent seat on the Security Council should be taken seriously.