Bahir Dar, Ethiopia — Saturday, 23 October 2026: The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR), Amani Africa Media and Research Services, FES-AU Cooperation Office, and the Tana Forum will jointly convene a Policy and Expert Roundtable on the margins of the Tana Forum to examine how Africa can mobilise support for invoking Article 109 of the United Nations Charter and advance a more equitable multilateral system.

The roundtable, titled “African Agency at a Time of Global Disorder: Mobilising Support for Article 109 on United Nations Charter Review,” responds to a period of profound global upheaval marked by geopolitical conflict, the failure to prevent and resolve wars in Africa and beyond, climate catastrophe, nuclear risks, and the rapid, largely unregulated growth of artificial intelligence. Against this backdrop, the event will explore how African governments, policy actors, academics, analysts and civil society can help shape the next world order.

For more than two decades, African leaders, through the African Union, have called for reform of global governance institutions. In the just concluded United Nations General Assembly (UNGA – September 2026), the outgioing UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, highlighted the need for a reform, particularly focussing on the UN Peace and Security Council noting the need for a Permanent Seat for Africa. The campaign for reflecting African positions, including those advanced through the Joint Namibia and Amani Africa Panel of Experts on Africa and the Reform of the Multilateral System, found expression in the Pact for the Future that the leaders of UN member states adopted in September 2024.  The AU Committee of Ten on the Reform of the United Nations Security Council has maintained a consistent continental position on Security Council reform, while the AU C-10 Model adopted in Lusaka in July 2025 advocates for a more democratic and accountable Security Council. These efforts align with Agenda 2063’s aspiration for Africa to become an influential global actor and underscore the urgency of amplifying African agency in the transformation of multilateralism.

Article 109 of the UN Charter provides for a General Conference of UN members to review the Charter. Because most of Africa was still under colonial rule when the Charter was drafted in 1945, African states were largely excluded from shaping the foundations of the current multilateral system. The roundtable will consider how invoking Article 109 can support redress for this historical exclusion and open space for broader reform beyond the UN Security Council, including the global financial architecture, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation.

The discussion will also build on the momentum created by the UN Pact for the Future, including its call to address Africa’s historical exclusion from the formation of the multilateral order, and the September 2026 Joint Ministerial Statement by Brazil, South Africa and India calling for a comprehensive UN Charter Review through Article 109. Participants will examine practical pathways for mobilising a “coalition of the leading” African countries and partners from other regions to support a UN General Assembly resolution convening a Charter Review Conference.

By convening policy makers, academics and analysts, the side event aims to generate actionable recommendations for consideration by the African Union’s policy organs and to position Charter review as an essential step toward a more democratic, inclusive and effective international system.