The Campaign

Welcome to the “Barefoot Walk for UN Reforms”

Barefoot Walk for UN Reforms’ is the AfricanParliamentary Alliance for UN Reforms appeal to people the world over to raise themselves above the fray and act together boldly to get substantive, far-ranging reforms in the United Nations Security Council, and ensure it is capable of meeting the tests of legitimacy and efficacy to prevent mass atrocities which still continue in a world where lessons should have been learned long ago.

The campaign was borne out of the imperative for over one billion Africans whose voices have not yet been heard to give an unmatched impetus to the work of the C-10, a Committee set by the African Union (AU) with the mandate to advocate and canvass the Common African Position on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Reform as enunciated by the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration.

Twenty five score years ago, millions of African slaves, in whose symbolic shadow we’re campaigning today, were forced barefooted into anchored ships destined for Europe and America. The transatlantic slave trade created the conditions for the subsequent colonial conquest of Africa; the justification of the ideology of racism and the unequal relationship that still exist between Africa and the world's big powers.

Seventy years since the birth of the United Nations and fifty years since the last (and only) UNSC enlargement was implemented, Africa remains the only continent which has no permanent representation on the UN Security Council despite having the largest membership in the UN.

Despite the fact that two thirds of the issues addressed at the UN concern Africa, the continent is grossly under-represented in the non-permanent category of UNSC and play second fiddle in its machinery.

This status quo is a travesty of justice and democratic values both in light of the primary responsibility of the Council in the maintenance of international peace and security and in the enormity of the issues on its agenda relating to the African Continent.

African leaders meeting in Swaziland in 2005 made no mistake in adopting the Ezulwini Consensus as the antidote for the historical injustice meted out to the Africa continent.

In consonance with the Ezulwini Consensus, a Committee of Ten Heads of State (C-10) was established by the African Union (AU), to champion the African Common Position on UNSC reform.

Despite more than a decade of intense efforts by the C-10, the issue of Security Council reform remains deadlocked. As was the case with the Open-Ended Working Group, the Intergovernmental Negotiations in New York do not seem to be gaining traction either.

Amid this withering injustice, the “Barefoot Walk for UN Reforms” was conceived as a symbol of African enslavement, to dramatize the continent’s unequal status at the UNSC.

This unequal relationship remains the most significant legacies of the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism and the ideology of racism - the notion that blacks were naturally inferior to whites.

We strongly believe that treating the “superficial manifestations” of conflict and terrorism cannot make a lasting difference. Without UNSC reforms, and unless the world’s highest security institution is capable of protecting with impartiality the interest of every global citizen, we will never win the war on terrorism or extreme poverty.

Reforming UNSC is an imperative for world peace, and is not only one for governments, but for all who care and desire a better and just world for all humanity.

The campaign is our chance to wake up and lend our voices to those that have done so before us. When voices join together they get heard. We are the embodiment of that spirit.

Together lets push the powerful in power to involve the powerless in making the world a better place.

Together, let us write a different story, let us change the world.

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