Former Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf has called for urgent enforcement of international law and reform of the council to address escalating conflicts and prevent future crises.

MsSirleaf said this while addressing a High-Level Debate in the UN Security Council chamber on Leadership for Peace on Wednesday in New York.

Ms Sirleaf, who spoke in her capacity as a member of the Group of Elders, established by former South African president Nelson Mandela, said the world needed leadership for peace desperately.

“Preserving peace should be the primary responsibility of any leader, yet the leadership for peace that the world desperately needs is sorely lacking,” she said, calling for action on three issues.

Firstly, she said leaders must uphold international law consistently, pointing to increasing numbers of instances of systematic violations in war zones, from Ukraine to Gaza and beyond.

Ms Sirleaf said she spoke on an increasing number of impunity for those committing atrocities as well as influential states intervening in conflicts, transferring weapons to warring parties and inflaming aggressions.

“Powerful states, including some permanent members of this council, are deliberately ignoring international norms,” she said.

Ms Sirleaf added that the war of aggression on Ukraine was a flagrant violation of the UN Charter, with the Security Council paralysed and not responding.

She pointed to incidents where some Council members undermined decisions of the International Court of Justice and threatened the International Criminal Court and its officials.

“it is vital that our international judicial institutions are supported and their decisions upheld,” added Ms Sirleaf. “International law must be applied consistently, regardless of who is being held accountable.”

2025 will mark 25 years since this council passed resolution 1325, which recognised the crucial role that women must play in peace and security, yet the decisions that most affect peace and security are still primarily, and in some contexts exclusively, made by men, often the same men who initiated the conflict.

(NAN)