Luanda — Angola celebrates on 1 December, 2022 its 46th anniversary as a full member of the United Nations, boasting a status of a strong and active country, with notable achievements in the political and diplomatic affairs.
This has been demonstrated by the performance of the country in the international arena , with a strong intervention in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, mainly in the African continent, with emphasis on the Central African Republic (CAR) and Burundi, as well as in the political-military crises Rwanda-Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo-Rwanda.
On 1 December 1976, during the 31st session of the UN General Assembly, chaired by Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe (Sri Lanka), the admission was recommended by the Security Council (SC), through resolution 397/76, with the favourable vote of the majority of the permanent members of this body.
In this General Assembly, Angola's admission to the UN, one year after its independence, obtained 116 votes in favour, none against and the abstention of the United States of America. Before that, specifically on 12 February 1976, the country had already been admitted to the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union (AU).
Angola participated in the session with a delegation headed by the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Eduardo dos Santos, and the ceremony was witnessed by the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kurt Waldheim (Austria).
However, it was not an easy process, as it faced the opposition of the then Administration of the United States of America, a permanent member of the Security Council, whose President Gerald Ford was opposed to Angola's admission to the organisation.
This was a consequence of the "cold war" that was going on at the time between the socialist bloc (Warsaw Pact), then led by the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) - now the Russian Federation -, an ally of Angola, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), led by the US, which did not recognise the country's independence because it supported other Angolan forces.
For this reason, in his speech to the General Assembly, following admission to the UN, the country's former Foreign Minister said that "the use of the veto by the United States is an insult to the international community, the OAU and the Non-Aligned Movement", organisations of which Angola was already a member and supported its request for admission to the UN.
"...the veto of the United States of America to the admission of the People´s Republic of Angola to the United Nations constitutes a violation of the spirit of the Letter of the United Nations and a total disregard to the principle of the universality, thus constituting a challenge to all the Member States of the OUA", declared José Eduardo dos Santos, who would become President of the country, following the premature death of Agostinho Neto, in 10 of September of 1978.
Against this background, Angola's admission as a member of the UN was a great Angolan diplomatic victory in the international arena, only possible thanks to the sharpness of those involved, under the leadership of President António Agostinho Neto.
It should be noted that Angola formalised its request for admission to the UN through a letter from President Agostinho Neto, dated 22 April 1976, in which was declared the acceptance and compliance with all the obligations contained in the Charter of the United Nations.
Background at the UN
Since its admission to the United Nations, Angola has been an active and proactive member, having integrated several bodies, especially the Security Council (with mandates in 2003-2004 and 2015-2016), the Human Rights Council (HRC) and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
In its two mandates as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, Angola actively participated in the peaceful resolution of disputes and in issues on the maintenance of international peace and security, with emphasis on the Great Lakes region.
In its first time on the SC, Angola presided over the body in November 2003, and in its second in March 2016, stressing the importance of multilateralism in the resolution of universal conflicts, within a logic of dialogue, responsibility and shared benefits.
Besides its presence in those bodies, Angola also chaired the Peace Consolidation Commission in 2006, soon after its creation, as recognition, by UN member states, of the success of its Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) process and the consolidation of peace and national reconciliation.
It is also worth highlighting its adhesion to a number of international treaties and United Nations conventions in a wide range of areas, such as peace and security, human rights, cooperation, international sustainable development and the environment.
Angola is currently undergoing the process of graduation from Least Developed Country (LDC) to Middle Income Country (MIC), at the request of the Angolan government, which has been extended to 12 February, 2024, due to the world economic and financial crisis of 2014, aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The list of LDCs was created by the United Nations in 1971 to bring together UN member states considered to be disadvantaged in their development process and with poor prospects of escaping poverty and therefore receiving specific assistance from the international community.
It is reviewed every three years to assess the individual performance of its member countries and determine whether or not they are eligible to move into the category of MICs, which entails the loss of the benefits or privileges of specific treatment reserved for the group of LDCs.
Commitment
Throughout its 46 years alongside the great nations, the country has had an active and significant presence in the discussion of major world issues. One of the examples was the notable contribution in the creation of the Kimberley Process, in 2000, of which Angola is co-founder and was president in 2014.
With the aim of eliminating the trade in diamonds originating from areas of conflict, the Kimberley Process resulted in the creation of the Kimberley Certification Scheme (SPCK) for rough diamonds, which came into force in January 2003 and is legally valid in almost the entire world diamond market.
It has made a valuable contribution to making peace and stability a reality, especially in Africa, particularly in Angola and Sierra Leone, by limiting and/or prohibiting the use of diamonds by rebel forces to finance civil wars, the so-called "blood diamonds".
The country also actively participated in the adoption, in the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council, of two similar and important resolutions on the new Peacebuilding Architecture, created in 2005.
The documents are part of a comprehensive new effort on how the UN system should deal with war situations, and reinforce the power of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), which serves as an advisor and "bridge" between the General Assembly and the Security Council.
They aim to reduce the human cost and suffering caused by several simultaneous humanitarian and security crises, and the resolutions also emphasise the role of women, youth and civil society in peacekeeping.
It has also developed Angola's doctrine of conflict resolution, based on three pillars, namely dialogue and frank and open debate, not settling conflicts through violent confrontation but through permanent consultation and negotiation, and sincere reconciliation among citizens, mutual forgiveness, continuous efforts at trust and mutual acceptance.
Global vision
Angola's diplomatic vision and its openness to the world have made it possible to promote equality among states and respect for each country's sovereignty, mutually advantageous cooperation, the defence and promotion of human rights, dialogue in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, in other words, compliance with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
Indeed, as a full member and a valid actor and interlocutor, Angola has fulfilled the purposes of the UN, with emphasis on the struggle for the total liberation and stability of the African continent.
As an example, Angola played a decisive role in the processes that culminated in the independence of Zimbabwe and Namibia, as well as in the eradication of the segregationist apartheid regime that was in force in South Africa, a step that enabled the liberation of the late President Nelson Mandela.
These events gave rise to the New York Accords, signed on 22 December 1988, at the UN headquarters, between Angola, Cuba and South Africa, which determined the withdrawal of Cuban troops and South African forces from the country, supervised by the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM).
In the context of its foreign policy, Angola has advocated a peaceful solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, and between Morocco and the Polisario Front, an organisation that fights for international recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
He has also always voted in favour of lifting the economic and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba, as it prevents the development of this country and the improvement of the living conditions of the Cuban people.
UN reform
Angola continues to give the UN the role of a driving force in the global effort to maintain peace, stability and economic and social development in the world and defends the idea that dialogue, negotiation and political and social inclusion are the best way to find solutions to put an end to conflicts.
However, he advocates deep reforms of the United Nations system, in particular of the Security Council, so that it may be more in line with the current international context, reflecting equitable geographical representation, through the enlargement of its permanent members, of which there are currently only five.
On this subject, the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, has reiterated in his speeches at the annual sessions of the UN General Assembly, Angola's alignment to the African position of the Ezulwini Consensus, which defends the attribution of two permanent seats and five non-permanent seats to the African continent, which is not represented in this body.
For the Angolan Head of State, "the reform of the Council is not merely optional, but an imperative that, if not accomplished, may lead to the UN's incapacity to act and the continuous crumbling of its legitimacy and credibility".
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The United States' obstruction of Angola's admission as a UN member is one of several examples of how the current composition of the Security Council does not reflect the wishes of the majority of the countries, and of how some permanent members of the Council use their power of veto in a way considered abusive by the other member states of the United Nations.
Permanent Mission of Angola to the UN
The United Nations was created on 24 October 1945, with the main objective of fostering peace among nations, cooperating towards sustainable development and promoting solutions of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Preserving world peace and security and encouraging international cooperation in the economic, social, cultural and humanitarian fields are other purposes of the organisation.
Since its admission to the United Nations, Angola's permanent representatives featured entities such as Elísio de Figueiredo (1976-1988), Manuel Pedro Pacavira (1988-1991), Afonso Van-Dúnem "Mbinda" (1991-2000), José Patrício (2000-2001) and Ismael Gaspar Martins (2001-2018).
The current permanent representative, Maria de Jesus Ferreira, has held the post since 2018 and, on the occasion of the anniversary, said that the Permanent Mission she heads "has been, throughout these years, co-author of several resolutions approved by the UN General Assembly, covering different areas."
Highlighting Angola's performance in conflict resolution issues, Maria de Jesus noted the Government's engagement in the search for solutions to the conflicts prevailing in the Central African Republic and the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the contribution of the Permanent Mission in all the meetings of the Committees of Experts of the UN Security Council on these two countries, providing information in the context of all the initiatives of President João Lourenço, with a view to ending the conflicts.
He also highlighted, among other initiatives, the fact that Angola is now part of the UN peacekeeping forces, with the deployment of two officers of the National Police to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), which occurred in July this year, in light of the Law on the Sending of Angolan Military and Paramilitary Contingents to Peacekeeping Missions outside the country, approved by the National Assembly in May 2021.
