UN must serve the interest of all

Accra, Aug. 16, GNA - Foreign Minister Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo on Tuesday asked the United Nations to fully represent the interest of all member nations to enhance its relevance and respectability. Speaking at a seminar on promoting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) in Accra, the Minister said the UN must be seen to be promoting the interest of all nations whether weak or strong, poor or rich to earn the respect it required in the international community.

"In other words the UN should endeavour to reflect at all times the aspirations of its entire membership, that is humanity in the fullest sense of the word," he said.

Nana Akuffo-Addo said it was in this light that African countries were demanding that decision-making within the Security Council, where the bulk of actions affecting the interest of developing countries were taken, should be democratised.

He said the Security Council had become a forum in which the fate of developing countries was determined without a single input from them.

"This is the logic underlying Africa's demand for permanent membership of the Security Council for two African States with full privileges and rights and two additional non-permanent seats, bringing to a total of five non-permanent seats, one for each region." Nana Akuffo-Addo said Ghana was determined to take advantage of the current momentum to continue her deep involvement in the search for a happy ending to African's quest for permanent membership of the Security Council.

He said Ghana like many other African countries believed that democracy and good governance were good not only for nations but for the efficiency and the long-term survival of international organisations. Mr Kwabena Okerchiri, Chairman, Parliamentary Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, underscored the importance of the UN system in helping to shape society for the better.

It is in this vein that the MDG goals were set five years ago by leaders of the world, actors and society at large to make sure that the goal was implemented.

The MDGs aimed at promoting education, gender equality and environmental sustainability and healthcare and food security by 2015. Mr Daouda Toure, the UN Resident Co-ordinator, said a crucial area of Kofi Annan's Report on the MDGs was the establishment of a peace building Commission that would support countries during their transition from armed conflict to lasting peace and to help to reduce the risk of war. 16 Aug. 05