UN General Assembly mulls Security Council reform
Regional-UN, Politics, 11/20/1998

The United Nations General Assembly yesterday began discussions on reforming the Security Council, according to a draft resolution on expansion and equitable representation introduced by Egyptian representative, Nabil El-Araby.

The resolution also contains a restatement that the Assembly Open-Ended Working Group on Council reform will continue its work in 1999.

The reforms under consideration include an expansion of the council's membership, the permanent members of which are currently limited to only five states, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

El-Araby said that any decision to expanding the Security Council would be related to charter amendment, and subject to the same rules that govern such amendments. This would require a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly to approve the change, as well as all of the council's five permanent members. He added that the draft resolution currently under consideration is a procedural measure, not a substantive one.

Noting that Security Council is 50 years old without the establishment of a clear definition of veto power, El-Araby said that a limitation of the use of veto power within the Council would be a positive move and called for a more equitable distribution of seats by geography.

However, El-Araby noted that there is currently an insufficient consensus to pass reform measures, saying that the process of establishing a consensus is one of the working group's tasks.

Other Arab states among the co-sponsors of the procedural draft are Lebanon, Qatar, and Syria.

Abdallah Baali, Algeria's representative, said that United Nations reform should include Security Council reform to be complete, adding that concerns of the majority of countries belonging to the UN are not taken into sufficient consideration within the Security Council, which could be changed by altering its makeup.

Palestinian observer Nasser al-Kidwa stated that the US had vetoed 21 measures on the Palestinian issue since 1973, saying that these vetoes had in effect prevented the application of international law and relevant sections of the UN charter. He said this protected Israel from the "collective will of the international community" despite Israeli actions, a UN release stated.

He questioned how this kind of a use of veto power would be stopped and whether there would be a limit to a number of vetoes on any given issue.

Previous Stories:
  Reforming the UN Security Council is all talk and no action   (8/26/1998)
  Egypt opposes hasty UN resolutions   (12/10/1997)
  Egyptian, Russian views identical regarding increasing number of Security Council members   (9/12/1997)

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