Reforming the UN Security Council is all talk and no action
Regional-UN, Politics, 8/26/1998

United Nations General Assembly President Hennadiy Udovenko, who is also the chairman of the Open-ended Working Group on Security Council reform, said in a statement to the General Assembly yesterday that, " tremendous efforts have been made this year in order to explore comprehensively different aspects of this reform," noting that the group submitted a 77-page report after meeting 56 times during the current UN session.

Expressing pessimism over the amount of progress made by the group, Udovenko said, "There is no compelling evidence to believe that the meetings of the Working Group have yielded a breakthrough in this reform exercise." He noted "major stumbling blocks" that the group has failed to resolve.

"Some of these stumbling blocks include opposition to the creation of new permanent seats, disagreement over the issue of the total size of an enlarged Council, different approaches to the issue of rotational arrangements for new permanent seats and, finally, considerable differences on the problem of veto right with respect to both current and prospective permanent members," Udovenko said.

The Egyptian, Syrian and Algerian representatives supported the position of the Non-Aligned Movement toward the reform efforts, calling for a two-thirds majority of all member states -- not only those present and voting -- to approve any reform proposal. Egypt's Amr Nour and Ahcene Kerma, Algeria's representative, said that the Non-Aligned Movement will address the Working Group's report at its summit meeting in South Africa. Egypt's Foreign Minister will be dealing with this issue on his coming visit to South Africa.

There has been considereable criticism of the UN Security Council for its lack of universal representation, its decision making process and the need to include more members on it. Germany, Japan, Egypt, Brazil and India have been talked about as members that should be added to the Council to provide better representation in light of the political and economic changes that have occurred since the Security Council's foundation. Opposition comes from some current members who see such an expansion as a dilution and a threat to their absolute power in this most important international body.

On Monday the General Assembly accepted the Working Group's report and agreed without a vote to allow the group to continue working for another year. At that time, the group will submit a new report to the General Assembly.

Udovenko expressed his concern that the group's lack of progress reflects badly on the unity of the United Nations, "The intensive discussions which have not led to practical results could leave a perception for the outside world that this reform exercise merely reflects conflicting interests between different groups in pursuit of their own goals."

He said that the only predominate goal of the Security Council reform effort is "to enhance the relevance of the United Nations to the requirements of a changing world, and to ensure that it can more effectively and efficiently meet the looming challenges as we enter a new century."

Previous Stories:
  Sudan asks Egypt to send scientific delegation to bombed medicine factory   (8/25/1998)
  India - Pakistan nuclear tests: the positive aspects   (6/1/1998)
  Arab League secretary general meets US ambassador to Egypt   (9/16/1997)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search