UNITED NATIONS – The UN General Assembly Friday approved, by consensus, adecision to continue the long-running negotiations to reform the SecurityCouncil during its forthcoming 73rd session, with Pakistan reiterating thatsuch reform must have “widest possible acceptance” by member states.
By the terms of that decision, the 193-member Assembly reaffirmed itscentral role in the question of equitable representation on and increase inthe membership of the Security Council, as well as in other issues relatedto the 15-member body.
To that end, it also decided to convene an open-ended working group onthose matters during the next session, which opens in New York on September18, and to immediately continue intergovernmental negotiations onrestructuring the Security Council. Those negotiations would build on theinformal meetings held during the 72nd session.
The Assembly also welcomed the active engagement and efforts of thePresident of the General Assembly, Miroslav Lajcak, and the Co-Chairs ofthe negotiations.
“The inter-governmental negotiation process this year has been intense andPakistan has, along with the other Uniting for Consensus countries,participated actively and upheld the principle of democratic reform of theSecurity Council to make it more representative, accountable, transparentand effective,” Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi said in aninterview with APP after the Assembly’s decision.
“We have also emphasized that such reform must have the widest possibleacceptance by member states,” she added.
Full-scale negotiations to restructure the Security Council began in theGeneral Assembly in February 2009. Despite a general agreement on enlargingthe Council, as part of the UN reform process, member states remain sharplydivided over the details.
Known as the “Group of Four” — India, Brazil, Germany and Japan — haveshown no flexibility in their campaign to expand the Security Council by 10seats, with six additional permanent and four non-permanent members.
On the other hand, the Italy/Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus (UfC) groupsay that additional permanent members will not make the Security Councilmore effective and also undermine the fundamental principle of democracythat is based on periodic elections.
The Security Council is currently composed of five permanent members —Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — and 10 non-permanentmembers that are elected in groups of five to two-year terms.
On Friday, Lajcak, the president of the General Assembly, who introducedthe oral decision, said that he believed the discussions carried out bymember states had been an inclusive process. An outcome had been reached,and he expressed his hope that the work done could be built upon. Hecommended the importance of the process and underscored that member stateswould decide where the work would go from here.
Outside the room, the entire world was watching, he said. As GeneralAssembly President, he had faced many questions about the reform of theSecurity Council, and those were not questions for him to answer but ratherquestions for the member states themselves.