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This month, South Africa is chairing the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

South Africa should use its chairmanship of this body, which is responsible for maintaining international peace and security, to ensure that five key issues facing the African continent feature prominently on the UN’s agenda.

These issues are:
Clarifying the responsibility of multilateral organisations to promote free and fair elections in Africa, including taking appropriate action where electoral processes are flawed;
Securing a permanent seat for an African representative on the UNSC;
Addressing the relationship between the UN and the African Union (AU), specifically the implementation of UN resolutions that clash with AU positions and the coordination of responses to conflict situations on the continent;
Promoting a coordinated international response to continued violence in Zimbabwe;
Advocating for the extension of basic human rights to all African people and specifically the protection of basic rights and freedoms of all, regardless of sexual orientation.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has recently faltered on a number of these issues, such as:
Its failure to speak out against the flawed electoral process in the Democratic Republic of Congo in November 2011;
Its flip-flop on the UN’s response to the conflict in Libya, and its decision to align itself with the AU on the matter; and
Its choice to stay mum on the violation of gay rights in Nigeria and Uganda.
The UNSC’s rules give the Council’s chair powers such as presiding over Council meetings, and prioritising report-back on matters being dealt with by the UNSC.

According to a statement released by DIRCO earlier this month, the chair is also responsible for “organising, coordinating and guiding the work of the council”.

The presidency of the UNSC provides South Africa with a unique opportunity to promote matters of regional and national importance. The DA will actively monitor the discussions and decisions of the UNSC under South Africa’s leadership.

We urge our UN representatives to seize this opportunity to redeem our credibility and to position ourselves in way that embodies our human rights based foreign policy.