Description
Calls for United Nations Security Council (UNSC) reform from African states have been rung for decades. The Ezulwini Consensus (2005) sets out the collective demands from the continent – via the African Union – for this reform. However, the demands for reform have faced serious obstacles – in no small part due to the fact that UNSC reform requires the unthinkable: states (i.e. the five permanent powers) to cede power. Nonetheless, African states have maintained their calls for a more democratic UNSC that has fairer permanent representation. Interestingly, an international forum to which the UNSC reform agenda has been advocated has been the International Criminal Court (ICC). The decade-long period of tension between the ICC and several of its African members also saw grievances aired about the undemocratic UNSC configuration. This suggests that Africa’s dissatisfaction with the UNSC power structure has spilled over into other global governance institutions, like the ICC, because the UNSC (and ICC, for that matter) are seen as symptoms of an unequal global political system that needs reform as a matter of international justice and democracy. This paper explores African states’ uses of ICC-related forums to further their demands for UNSC reform through a critical discourse of country statements delivered by African states. This helps to improve understandings of Africa’s international relations as well as its strategies for exercising its relatively weak power position in global politics to assert its demands.
