On the eve of the 3rd India-Africa Forum Summit, editors from the two sides held discussions on the kind of reforms needed in global governance, particularly in institutions like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, International Criminal Court (ICC) etc. They also discussed about the United Nations and the ‘super powers’ approach in dealing with terrorism and peacekeeping operations.
The Editors from both India and Africa felt that the present United Nations Security Council (UNSC) does not fulfill the aspirations of a large part of the world population, hence, it needed to be reformed to make it more inclusive.
“There is need for structural change as in the UNSC as the power here is tilted in one direction… The relationship between internal and external has to be revisited as the traditional notion of sovereignty does not exist anymore,” said Indian foreign policy analyst C Raja Mohan while questioning the importance of UN institutions like the criminal court at the 3rd India-Africa Editor’s Forum. Some of the issues flagged during the Editor’s Forum will also form part of the discussions at the India-Africa Forum Summit.
Moderating the session, Ambassador Vivek Katju said that ICC is perceived to lack even handedness, hence, it was time to relook at its functioning.
Yusul Ali from Nigeria raised serious concersn over the rising conflicts in several nations. He pointed out that ‘big nations’ first invest in arms and weapons, and then to sell these create conflicts and crisis.
Analyst Siddhartha Varadarajan raised the issue of new global norms like one for internet, and need to have a policy on protection of refugees. He also talked about reforming existing international institutions.
Shyaka Kanuma from Rwanda questioned the interest of ‘bigger countries’ in the UN in solving crisis in African nations. He said that while Congo has a huge presence of peacekeeping forces, the world was actually ot very serious in sorting out the conflict in Congo and easing up the situation there.
While talking about reforms, South Africa’s Victor Kgomoeswana talked about having institutions that can forge coalitions in dealing with global crisis such as Ebola, etc.