NewzNAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 24— President William Ruto has warned that inconsistent application of international law and unequal power within the United Nations are eroding trust in the multilateral system, urging countries to confront what he described as a widening gap between the principles of sovereign equality and the way global institutions operate. Addressing the General Debate of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Ruto said the credibility of the international system depends not only on the rules it adopts but on whether those rules are applied consistently. “International law cannot be invoked loudly in one crisis, cautiously in another and disregarded when convenient,” Ruto said.
“Trust cannot be restored by declaration. It must be earned by consistency.” The Kenyan president placed the issue at the centre of a broader critique of the post-Second World War global order, arguing that institutions created in 1945 no longer adequately reflect today’s geopolitical realities. He said the credibility of collective security was being weakened as conflicts multiplied while international responses remained uneven.
Ruto cited what he said were 65 state-based armed conflicts last year, including 13 at war scale, with nearly 250,000 people killed in organised violence. He said interstate conflicts had doubled for a second consecutive year and quadrupled in two years, from two to eight. “Disputes are increasingly frozen, deferred or decided by force,” he said, warning that conflicts stretching from Europe and the Middle East to the Sahel and Horn of Africa were exposing failures in collective security.
His criticism extended to the structure of the Security Council, where five permanent members- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — hold veto power. The Council has 15 members, with the remaining 10 elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms. Ruto argued that the arrangement sits uneasily with the principle of sovereign equality represented by the 193-member General Assembly.
“Every nation has one vote in this Assembly,” he said. “But five have permanent power in the Security Council. The equality proclaimed in this Assembly ends at the doors of the Security Council.” For Africa, he said, the imbalance was particularly stark.
The continent has 54 UN member states but has no permanent seat on the Sec… NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 24— President William Ruto has challenged the post-World War II global order, arguing that the institutions created in 1945 no longer reflect the geopolitical realities of the modern world and must be reformed to give Africa a permanent voice in decisions on war, peace and global economic governance. Addressing the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Ruto placed Africa’s exclusion from the UN Security Council’s permanent membership at the centre of his broader critique of a multilateral system he said continues to proclaim sovereign equality while preserving structures of unequal power.
Summary from source