Bolivia: At least 10 people were killed in an explosion at a military barracks

As part of a move beyond the boundaries of geography, which is linked to the image of the world in the public mind, the United Nations General Assembly is preparing to vote on a draft resolution that calls for the adoption of maps that more accurately show the true areas of continents and countries. In an attempt to reduce the distortions that have perpetuated the widespread use of the Mercator map for decades.

The United Nations General Assembly is voting on a resolution calling on the world to abandon the traditional Mercator map, which shrinks Africa and expands landmasses in the northern regions, in favor of a design that more accurately reflects the true size of countries, the Independent reported.

The draft resolution calls on governments, schools, international organizations and technology companies to adopt iso-Earth projections and other equal-area maps where the true size of continents is important; To establish the use of more accurate maps that represent the actual size of lands as a new global standard. On the other hand, the draft does not seek to completely ban the use of the Mercator projection.

The vote is scheduled for Friday.

The Mercator projection, currently used worldwide, increases the distortion in the representation of areas the further the region is from the equator. Because Africa is mostly located in the tropical region; They are relatively smaller than their actual size, while Europe, North America, Greenland, and Russia are much larger than their actual areas.

As a result; Africa, along with Latin America, India and other tropical regions, appears much smaller than it really is compared to northern countries and regions. For example, the map shows Africa about the same size as Greenland, even though the continent of Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland.

Togo’s foreign minister, Robert Ducey, said his country had submitted a draft resolution to the United Nations with the support of the African Union, without specifying the number of countries that supported the resolution vote.

At a briefing for the African Group at the United Nations this week, Ducey said the importance of the issue goes beyond geography.

Ducey explained: “A map is never neutral. It shapes perceptions, affects the understanding of the place of peoples and continents in the world, and sometimes from the earliest stages of education can form perceptions that are incompatible with geographical reality.”

He added: “Africa does not ask for preferential treatment, but demands that its reality, aspirations and contribution to the international system be taken into account.”

Ducey called on African delegations to extend support for the resolution ahead of a vote scheduled for Friday, describing the vote as a test of the continent’s ability to act with one voice at the United Nations.

As part of this effort, Togo hosted all UN member states on the eve of the vote.

Asked if he expected opposition to the resolution, Ducey said he was looking for the broadest possible consensus.

He said: “I’m an academic before I’m a politician. As an academic, I say we need to reach as much consensus as possible; because we’re here at the UN and we don’t know what might happen.”

A petition launched by the campaign on the crowdfunding platform Change, with the hashtag #CorrectTheMap, has collected nearly 11,000 signatures ahead of the vote. The African Union supported the campaign in August 2025 and asked Togo to accept the UN.

“As Africa becomes more important in solving global challenges, it becomes necessary to imagine its true size,” the petition said.

Historians and geographers have long argued that Mercator’s map reflected Western assumptions about the world, while some activists used the term “cartographic colonialism” to denounce what they called the negative effects the map had on the size of continents and countries.