MONROVIA –The Financial Group of West African States Fee (ECOWAS) has congratulated Liberia on its election to the United Nations Safety Council as a non-permanent member, whereas urging the nation to make use of its historic return to the Council to aggressively promote Africa’s reform priorities and improvement aspirations on the worldwide stage.
By Jaheim T. [email protected]
Liberia secured 181 votes on the United Nations Normal Meeting, a decisive final result that confirmed broad worldwide backing for the nation’s candidacy and cleared the best way for it to start its two 12 months tenure in January 2026 underneath the African Union grouping often called the A3.
The election marks Liberia’s first presence on the Safety Council since 1961, when it served a negotiated one 12 months time period, and comes at a time when African leaders are intensifying requires reforms to international governance establishments.
In an announcement welcoming the end result, the ECOWAS Fee described Liberia’s victory as a powerful testomony to the arrogance of the worldwide neighborhood within the nation’s resilience and regular return to diplomatic relevance after years of political and financial instability.
The regional bloc emphasised that Liberia’s success displays not solely nationwide progress but additionally collective West African solidarity throughout the African Union framework.
ECOWAS assured Monrovia of its full help and the full backing of all ECOWAS member states, noting that Liberia’s presence on the Safety Council offers an necessary alternative to consolidate and increase the work of the Africa Group in selling West Africa’s pursuits on problems with democracy, peace and safety.
The Fee pressured that the area expects Liberia to talk with readability and consistency on issues affecting Africa’s stability, improvement and illustration throughout the worldwide system.
Past expressions of help, ECOWAS outlined particular expectations for Liberia’s engagement on the Council, calling on the nation to champion key African priorities, notably the operationalization and full implementation of United Nations Safety Council Decision 2719. The decision, adopted in December 2023, established a brand new framework for financing African Union led peace help operations by permitting United Nations assessed contributions to cowl as much as 75 % of mission prices, with the African Union accountable for offering the remaining 25 %.
Regardless of the importance of Decision 2719, progress on its implementation has been sluggish. As of late 2025, no peace mission had been funded underneath the brand new association, and efforts to use the framework to the African Union mission in Somalia have stalled amid issues over funding ensures and burden sharing.
A joint African Union and United Nations process pressure is at present engaged on technical and political points of implementation, whereas debates proceed amongst member states over whether or not the African Union can reliably mobilize its required monetary contribution. ECOWAS believes Liberia’s voice on the Council can be vital in pushing the method ahead and translating the decision into sensible outcomes.
The regional bloc additionally urged Liberia to actively help Africa’s financial agenda, together with advocacy linked to the African Continental Free Commerce Space. Whereas the AfCFTA has confronted implementation challenges and generated debate throughout the continent, African and international leaders proceed to border it as a cornerstone of Africa’s long run financial transformation.
In February 2025, talking in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, United Nations Secretary Normal António Guterres instructed African Union leaders that the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union had by no means been stronger and inspired them to grab Africa’s demographic and financial momentum.
Guterres described Africa as brimming with hope and risk, pointing to its booming and enterprising inhabitants and its standing as residence to the biggest focus of younger individuals on the earth. He stated the African Continental Free Commerce Space is poised to turbocharge the area’s financial system by boosting intra African commerce, industrialization and job creation, and referred to as for sustained political dedication to unlock its full potential.
ECOWAS additional referred to as on Liberia, as West Africa’s sole consultant on the non-permanent Safety Council throughout its tenure, to advocate forcefully for lengthy standing African calls for for reform of the Council itself, in addition to for reparations and reparative justice.
The Fee underscored that these calls for are rooted in historic injustices and ongoing structural inequalities that proceed to marginalize Africa inside international resolution making methods.
As a part of this push, the African Union declared 2025 the 12 months of Reparations, arguing that justice for Africa and other people of African descent requires not solely monetary compensation but additionally deep structural change in worldwide establishments and financial relationships.
Africa at present accounts for greater than 1 / 4 of United Nations member states but holds no everlasting seat on the Safety Council, a actuality African leaders say undermines the legitimacy and representativeness of the physique.
The Ezulwini Consensus and the Accra Proclamation proceed to information Africa’s unified place on Safety Council reform, calling for at the very least two everlasting seats with full veto energy and 5 non-permanent seats for the continent. ECOWAS leaders see the interval main into 2026 as a vital turning level and imagine Liberia’s presence on the Council can assist amplify requires reparative justice, equitable illustration and a rebalancing of world governance constructions.
Liberia’s election has been broadly considered as a serious diplomatic milestone and a logo of the nation’s reemergence on the worldwide stage.
Liberia final served on the Safety Council in 1961 throughout a negotiated one-year time period, a interval that contrasts sharply with the up to date two-year non-permanent membership secured by a aggressive Normal Meeting vote.
