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.
