A ‘unilateral’ move seeking UN Security Council’s expansion fails

UNITED NATIONS : A draft, recently circulated by Cyprus and Germany, proposing to add seven new members to the UN Security Council failed to muster any significant support in a General Assembly’s panel tasked with promoting an agreement on the 15-member body’s reform, diplomats said. The proposal, backed by a group of countries, was billed as the latest attempt to try to break a deadlock on the issue of expanding the council, the UN’s most powerful body.
But it ran into opposition in the Assembly’s Open-Ended Working Group from the African Group and the Italy/Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group as well as the United States and Russia.
The move by what has become known as the “overarching group” was seen as “unilateral” and one that cannot become the basis of further negotiations on expanding the council.
Pakistan’s U.N. Ambassador Munir Akram rejected as “arbitrary and unilateral” the proposal, which is an off-shoot of the one put forward in 2005 by four aspirants of permanent seats on the council—India, Brazil, Germany and Japan.
“We believe no 30 countries can get together and say they represent all others especially when they exclude other members from different groups,” he said while speaking in the Assembly’s Working Group on Thursday.
“This unilateral initiative, self-described as an overarching group, and later as an overarching process, has elaborated a paper, which ignores the framework for our further work that was reflected in the last (Working Group) report and in the (Assembly President’s) guiding principles,” Ambassador Akram said. “Thus, it cannot pretend to become the basis of further work; indeed in this inter-governmental process, it cannot even be taken into formal cognizance.”
The Pakistan ambassador added, “These unilateral initiatives and papers are all designed with the objective of circumventing the consensus and forcing the General Assembly to reach a conclusion that is only in the interest of the few countries.”
For more than a decade, the UN General Assembly has been struggling with ways to expand the Security Council. Most states agree that the composition of the world’s watchdog of international peace and security is outdated and must adapt to a much-changed world in the 21st century.
Recent attempts to launch formal negotiations on expanding the council have failed. But last year the President of the UN General Assembly said it was time to try again to break the deadlock and help jump-start formal negotiations.
The Cyprus draft says two of the new seats would go to Africa, two to Asia, one to Latin America and the Caribbean, one to western Europe and one to eastern Europe. But the membership terms are left open, with possibilities ranging from permanent to semi-permanent membership to standard two-year elected membership.
The council currently has five permanent veto-wielding members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, considered World War II victors. Ten nonpermanent members are elected for 2-year terms based on regions.
The size of the council has increased once since the United Nations was created in 1945. In 1965, the number of elected members rose from six to 10.
The text, which diplomats said was drafted by Cyprus with help from Germany, says the proposal’s goal is “to improve representation on the Security Council, without sacrificing its effectiveness, as opposed to its current ... form.”
But a letter from Italy, which heads the UfC group said, “It is our understanding that there will be no unilateral proposal or initiative” on expanding the council.
In his speech, Ambassador Akram said, “Let us not build straw houses or throw around bricks at other people. We need a proper architecture. Let us first plan and construct its basis.”
The UfC group opposes any expansion of the permanent members on the Security Council. It seeks enlargement of the council to 25 seats, with 10 new non-permanent members who would be elected for two-year terms, with the possibility of immediate re-election.
Any successful council reform plan would need consensus among the 192 UN members and ratification would take years.