For a month, one text a day has set out President Macky Sall's position on debt and health, digital technology, peace, climate, then on cooperation among countries of the South and on disaster prevention. Read in one sitting, these texts defend a single demand, that of rules written by all those they govern. A finance minister negotiating the rescheduling of his debt too often discovers that the tax norm binding him was settled in a room where his country had no seat.
Rules written by a few. The norms of international taxation and artificial intelligence have often been settled among a handful of states, as have those governing orbits. The countries that bear their effects most were often absent from the table. Returning the decision to the majority of states would strengthen the authority of those norms with the countries that apply them.
Development and security. The debt that smothers and the school that is missing prepare, with the climate that displaces people, the crises the Security Council will later have to address. Thinking peace together with development costs less than intervening afterwards, and that conviction underlies each of the positions taken.
The power to convene. Bringing states around one table before accomplished facts stand in for law remains the power proper to the Secretary-General. On taxation as on orbits, the convening of a conference where every state has a seat comes before any rule that claims to bind all. President Macky Sall exercised that office at the head of the African Union in 2022; he proposes to exercise it in New York for all the countries that, until now, have applied rules written by others.
Twelve years as head of state. Those twelve years add to the chairmanship of the African Union. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames its proposals as obligations: peace, security and development conceived together; a renewed multilateralism; stronger governance of the Organization.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
All of the candidacy's dated positions appear in the site's record. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net