Briefing to the UN Security Council: Maintenance of International Peace and Security — Promoting Common Security through Dialogue and Cooperation

Thank you, Mr. President,

I thank Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary General and Gustavo Zlauvinen, President of the Tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, for their briefings.

Mr President, I commend you and your delegation for the choice of today's briefing.

We embrace the discussion believing that the survival of our species is dependent on the establishment of security based on dialogue and cooperation, not the combative threat of mutual, and worldwide, nuclear annihilation.

Unfortunately, the international community is facing an increasingly dangerous confrontation between the great powers.

In the past, we have regretted the increasing irrelevance of multilateralism. We do so again knowing that without it, humanity will suffer grievously as our hopes are crushed by multiple, inter-locking crises.

Mr. President, as you know, we have an agreement that if embraced in deed, as much as it is in word, offers us a hopeful basis for collective security.

That agreement is the UN Charter, which we must not allow to go the way of the failed League of Nations.

However, present trends holding, it may well meet this unfortunate end due to its paralysis caused by the increasing conflict between defensive and offensive alliances of major powers.

The effects are already devastating when it comes to the ongoing war in Europe and its worldwide effects. Unless dialogue is started to halt the war in Ukraine, the continuation of the logic that led to it will lead to ruin for all of us.

We are at a fork in the road. Will the world's powers choose to embrace the guiding vision of the UN? Or will they turn it into one more arena of their conflict and sap its will and means to protect international peace and security? The rest of the world, and Africa specifically, must not wait passively to be swept into the centre of the storms being generated by this historic confrontation. It must not lead to us suffering the agony of proxy wars or out-of-control climate change and pandemics.

Mr President,

The 1982 Palme Commission held out the hope that citizens, and civil society, would take a more active role in advocating for disarmament and security. Our argument today is that regions, and specifically Africa, have an important role to play.

The future 'map of survival', as the New York Times dubbed the Palme Commission, will need to have Africa as both its subject and as a critical actor for its success.

The world needs a prosperous, secure and united Africa to successfully navigate today's major challenges such as global insecurity and climate change.

Africa's Agenda 2063 can therefore be a cornerstone for the emergence of a balancing pillar for international peace and security.

We propose to our friends and partners today that aiding this ambition, or, at a minimum, not impeding it, is in their fundamental interest.

Mr President,

Without stronger contributions to our common security by all regions and our multilateral instruments, destructive cold and hot wars, and other major harms, lie in our immediate future.

There are many efforts required, but I will mention only a few that I urge you to prioritise in your analysis.

First, we need to renew our ambition to undertake overdue reforms of the United Nations, and particularly the Security Council. Africa's seats, in line with the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration, offer the greatest hope for a balanced Council.

The African Union, and other regional organisations, also need to undertake every effort to strengthen their peace and security architecture to strengthen the impact of chapter eight of the UN Charter.

Second, the UN needs to assume greater responsibility for all peace operations against threats to international peace and security. In particular, there is a need to provide adequate and predictable financing including through assessed contributions of Security Council mandated, AU-led peace operations.

There must also be adequate, predictable and sustained financing for peacebuilding. In this regard, we urge members to agree on an ambitious resolution on financing for peacebuilding by the end of the 76th Session.

Third, it is an unfortunate legacy that the regions leading in development of nuclear weapons are also the most advanced in the development of militarised artificial intelligence. The UN and regional organisations must have a stronger voice in ensuring that this technology is developed ethically, and in line with the principles of the UN Charter.

Fourth, common security is not attainable without development. In particular, there must be renewed energy shown by industrialised countries to meet and exceed commitments for climate change adaptation and mitigation. COP-27 in Egypt will be a key test.

Fifth, and finally, militant non-state actors, and in particular terrorists, can fatally undermine our common security.

We call for stronger efforts by the Council to predictably and consistently use its full range of tools against all terrorist entities and their collaborators.

Mr. President, Kenya will continue playing its part in promoting dialogue and cooperation for the sake of common security. We have played an essential part in the forging of political solutions to multiple conflicts and even headed off state collapse in our region.

At the moment, we are undertaking every diplomatic and political effort to facilitate and assist the Democratic Republic of Congo to solve the crisis in its eastern region through the Nairobi Conclave and the inter-Congolese dialogue.

We make these efforts, alongside our neighbours and partners, in the firm belief that dialogue and cooperation, not confrontation and conflict, are key to ensuring our citizens, and all people, live in peace, security and shared prosperity.

I thank you for your attention.