By Jorge Luis Barrera Vega, April 5, 2025.
Jérôme Bonnafont, current President of the United Nations Security Council and ambassador from France, met with representatives of civil society at the UN Headquarters in New York to present main issues in the global security agenda. During the dialogue, Bonnafont briefly exposed the current areas of interest for UN and answered the representatives’ questions, those related to his presentation and others equally relevant both to the representatives and the wider security agenda.
In the forefront and concentrating lots of efforts of the Security Council, is the region of the Middle East. The crisis in Gaza resulting from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas requires looking beyond the ceasefire and reflecting on the Palestinian Question and the future of West Bank, while the new regime in Syria needs support in fighting against terrorism and ensuring good relationships with its neighbors. There is still uncertainty on how to act in regards of the new president of Lebanon after the demise of his predecessor during the operations launched by Israel against Hezbollah, and the unity of Yemen is another dilemma given the open hostility of the Houthi rebels against neighboring states and Israel, as shown with its intervention supporting Hamas during the ongoing confrontation. Without disregarding the relevance of the stated issues, Bonnafont highlighted one last problem affecting not just Gaza but other countries in the region and other African countries: the attacks on humanitarian efforts and against UN personnel in charge of them; for the ambassador, the Security Council must act to ensure such actions do not become the norm for current and future humanitarian interventions by the UN.
The African countries outside the Middle East are also scenario for international conflict and institutional crisis, with the focus this week being the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Recent events have led to contemplate the possibility of turning from the original mediation based on two actors to a model based on a unified mediation with more power to confront African Security issues. Bonnafont stated that peace and force must go hand in hand to deal with crisis such as the one afflicting the DRC, but always in agreement and coordination with African authorities since the Security Council does not work in a political vacuum.
Regarding Ukraine, the position of the Security Council is one of skepticism towards Russia’s commitment to peace and the ambassador reiterates that the war is still far from reaching a point that enables a lasting peace. Such scenario requires Ukraine “to not be forced to accept agreements that are not agreements”, and to count on continued financial and military European support. Finally, support must also be given to Haiti in fighting widespread gang violence and the iron grip these groups have on most of the country’s capital city, Puerto Principe.
The representatives of civil society shared these concerns but had their own to add. One case was feasibility of limiting the power of veto used by the five permanent members of the Security Council -which include France- to which Bonnafont answered that his country has been pushing for such reforms for a while by supporting an increase in the number of permanent members and the regulations for a more responsible use of veto. And regarding questions on France’s position to promote Human Rights and in particular peace and security for women, Bonnafont explained that France has pushed for positioning women in high authorities in Diplomatic Services, in acknowledgement of the equal capacities of men and women to exercise responsible diplomacy.
