Palestine shows need to reform UN: South Africa

JOHANNESBURG: The Palestinian crisis has presented an opportunity to reform the UN, to make it more representative and effective at the Security Council level, and to protect the innocent from harm in future conflicts, South African foreign minister Naledi Pandor has said.

Speaking as the chief guest at an Eid gathering organised at Brixton here on Thursday, Pandor, the minister of International Relations and Cooperation, criticised the Israeli incursions into Gaza as “arrogant breaches of international law by Israel and the allies of Israel.

She said that a new “low point” has been reached with respect for human rights. “The war, as well as the genocidal intent of Israel and the failure of the UN to stop the murder of thousands of Palestinians and to show respect for international humanitarian law, indicated to all of us that the world had reached a new low point in respect for justice and human rights,” she said.

Pandor said the Palestinian crisis has also presented an opportunity to reform the UN - to make it more representative and effective at the Security Council level.

“(We need to) empower it with practical capacity to protect the innocent from harm in any future conflicts,” she said.

We need to empower it with practical capacity to protect the innocent from harm in any future conflicts, says Pandor

“The reason for establishing the UN was to ensure that as the globe, we would settle all conflicts in that body and should any violence ensue against innocent people, we made it the duty of the UN Security Council to ensure that the innocent are protected. But we have a fundamental flaw in the Security Council. That has to be changed,” the minister said.