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Security Council reform
Security Council meeting
The General Assembly recently held its annual debate on Security Council reform. The Council is primarily responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security, and is comprised of five permanent members and 10 rotating non-permanent members who serve for two-year terms. Dianne Penn filed this report.
NARR: Over the past year, Security Council increased the number of its open debates on issues of global concern. Members also undertook missions to UN peacekeeping operations, and strengthened partnerships with regional and sub-regional groups, such as the African Union. But outreach initiatives such as these will be "insufficient" if the body does not reflect today's global realities, according to Brazil's deputy ambassador to the UN, Regina Maria Cordeiro Dunlop:
DUNLOP 1: Only genuine reform in the Council's structure can bring it closer to that goal. Diversity has to be embedded in its very heart, thus making it more legitimate, more representative, and hence more effective.
NARR: Security Council reform has been cause for debate for more than a decade, most recently in the General Assembly where all 192 UN member states have a voice. In expressing the opinion of the African Group, Shekou Touray of Sierra Leone reiterated the continent's request for no less than two permanent seats on the Security Council.
TOURAY 1: Only a comprehensive reform of the Security Council will address the historical injustice that leaves Africa as the only continent not represented in the permanent category of the Security Council. Paradoxically, this organ devotes 70 per cent of its time dealing with issues directly and sometimes exclusively affecting the continent, which also provides over a quarter of the membership of the United Nations.
NARR: Reform should ensure that the Security Council agenda reflects the needs and interests of both developing and developed countries, said Egyptian ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, who spoke on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement.
ABDELAZIZ 1: It should aim at limiting and curtaining the use of the veto, with a view to its elimination, and should lead to a democratic, more representative, more accountable and more effective Council.
NARR: The Caribbean Community also supports scrapping the veto, a right exercised by the Council's five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the USA.
HACKETT1: We consider the practice to be fundamentally undemocratic and unrepresentative of the wider representative of the wider membership of the United Nations in whose interest the Council is empowered to take action.
NARR: Christopher Hackett, the ambassador of Barbados, presented the regional viewpoint.
HACKETT 1: The misuse and abuse of the veto seriously undermine the main purpose of reform efforts to make the Council more transparent and more accountable. However, if abolition of the veto is not likely to be immediately possible, there should be an agreement that it would be used with the utmost restraint, and should be limited to actions under Chapter 7 of the Charter.
NARR: That section of the United Nations Charter concerns the Security Council's role in maintaining world peace. But another group of island nations observed that the chamber's current composition does not reflect today's geopolitical realities. As a result, the Pacific Small Island States support six new permanent member seats in the Security Council: two each for Africa and Asia, one for Latin America and the Caribbean, and another for the Western Europe and Others Group. Jeem Lippwe from Micronesia represented the group:
LIPPWE 1: We are aware that fatigue and frustrations may set in as there have not been many feasible or tangible results after so many years of ongoing discussions within this organization to reform the Security Council. But we must stay the course and remain committed.
NARR: Jeem Lippwe, deputy ambassador of Micronesia to the UN, speaking on the issue of Security Council reform. For UN Radio, I'm Dianne Penn.
Producer: Dianne Penn
Duration: 3'54"
