The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution calling for greater use of world maps that more accurately represent the relative size of Africa and other continents, in a vote led by Togo and backed by the African Union (AU).
The resolution received 164 votes in favour, with the United States voting against and six countries abstaining. It does not seek to ban the Mercator projection or replace it in fields such as maritime and aviation navigation. Instead, it encourages governments, international organisations and educational institutions to consider alternative projections where the relative size of continents is particularly important, including textbooks, atlases, institutional websites and maps used by the media.
Robert Dussey, Togo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, African Integration and Togolese Abroad, presented the initiative to the Assembly, arguing that cartography influences how countries and regions are perceived.
“A fair map does not change the geography of the world. It changes the way the world is perceived. And when our perspective becomes fairer, it lays the foundations for greater understanding, greater respect and peace among nations,” Dussey said during his presentation.
He added that correcting the map was neither an aesthetic nor symbolic exercise, but a demand for scientific and educational accuracy. Africa, he said, should be represented according to its actual dimensions rather than through distortions inherited from the past, allowing it to be recognised according to its reality, contribution and future.
The resolution specifically refers to the Equal Earth projection, created in 2018 by Bernhard Jenny, Tom Patterson and Bojan Šavrič. Unlike Mercator, which was designed to preserve angles and shapes for navigation, Equal Earth is designed to represent continental areas proportionally.
The difference is particularly striking in conventional Mercator maps. Created by Gerardus Mercator in 1569, the projection increasingly enlarges territories towards the poles. As a result, Greenland can appear comparable in size to Africa, although Greenland is actually around 14 times smaller. The source text notes that every two-dimensional projection of the Earth involves some form of distortion, with different projections offering different advantages, disadvantages and compromises.
The UN decision represents the latest development in the #CorrectTheMap campaign, launched by Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa in 2025. The campaign argues that the choice of map projection extends beyond cartography into education, media representation and the way successive generations understand Africa’s place and physical scale in the world.
The African Union endorsed the initiative in August last year and subsequently asked Togo to lead diplomatic efforts to secure its adoption at the UN. The resolution therefore marks a significant moment in a campaign that seeks to make the representation of Africa a matter of international discussion.
But the vote also exposed concerns about how cartographic changes could intersect with territorial and political questions.
The United States opposed the resolution. Its representative criticised the Assembly for debating “19th-century maps” instead of concentrating on issues of peace, prosperity and good international relations. She also argued that resolutions such as the one presented, together with “the ideological agenda they promote”, were obstacles to the organisation’s work.
Ukraine likewise raised concerns, saying it did not oppose the broader issues addressed in the resolution but could not support its specific reference to Equal Earth. Its representative warned that maps using the projection could depict parts of Ukrainian territory temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation and stressed that implementation must remain fully consistent with UN principles, rules and guidelines concerning territorial integrity and state sovereignty.
Speaking for the European Union and its member states, Ireland’s representative similarly stressed that the representation of borders and territorial status within the UN system remains governed by UN policy. Nothing in the resolution, she said, should be interpreted as modifying, overriding or correcting internationally recognised borders and territorial references.
The resolution is non-binding and therefore does not require member states to adopt a particular projection. Supporters nevertheless argue that its significance lies in establishing an international reference point for institutions considering how the world is visually represented.
Carlos Lopes, a professor at the University of Cape Town and collaborator with Africa No Filter, said the objective was not simply to replace one image with another, but to correct an entrenched narrative and allow Africa to be seen in its true dimensions.
Fara Ndiaye, co-founder and deputy executive director of Speak Up Africa, said the vote was significant because the initiative had been presented by Togo and supported by the African Union. “Africa is setting the agenda on how Africa is represented, rather than simply asking to be represented differently,” she said.
The next stage, campaigners argue, is implementation. They want the UN and its agencies to adopt equal-area projections in publications and digital products, while governments review school curricula and official maps. Publishers, media organisations, universities and technology companies, particularly digital mapping platforms, are also being encouraged to consider similar changes.
The resolution establishes a mechanism for monitoring progress. It asks the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly on its implementation and provides for a specific agenda item during the 83rd session of the General Assembly.
For campaigners, the next stage will determine whether a largely symbolic change in how the world is drawn can become a broader shift in how Africa is represented in classrooms, institutions, media and digital technology.
