Debate over Security Council reform intensifies

By Andreas von Warburg

The major players in world affairs are working behind the scene to prepare to the next step in the reform process of the United Nations Security Council. This week, in fact, the controversial debate over the rebalancing of the UN most powerful body resumes in New York.

Earlier this month, the President of the UN General Assembly, Ambassador Srgjan Kerim, sent out a letter to all Member States informing them that he was convening the second meeting of the open-ended working group on the question of equitable representation and increase in the membership of the Security Council and other matters related to the Security Council for Thursday, April 10.

The meeting, according to the Office of the Spokesperson of the Secretary-General, is expected to take stock of where the process is based on the outcome of the recent phase of extensive consultations.

“As you may recall, this consultation phase among Member States is aimed at identifying negotiables that can serve as a basis for future intergovernmental negotiations,” said earlier this month Marie Okabe, deputy spokesperson of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The President of the General Assembly and his senior staff have met with a variety of players and actors in the process, including of course, his task force, which is made up of the Permanent Representatives of Bangladesh, Chile and Portugal.

In late March, ambassadors from six countries, including Britain and Germany, submitted a reform proposal that seeks to expand the Security Council by seven seats, enlarging its membership from 15 to 22 states.

The proposal is the latest in a long history of negotiations attempting to restructure the Security Council’s makeup, and the first since 2005. Indeed, there is a strong support for enlargement, but a lot is at stake and both the current permanent members – namely, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – as well as possible candidate countries are playing extremely carefully.

The latest proposal comes from the so-called “Group of Four,” or G4, which groups Brazil, India, Japan, and Germany. They are pushing for a reform that creates two additional seats for Africa, two for Asia, one for Latin America, one for Western Europe, and one for Eastern Europe. The proposal leaves the question of permanent seats open, however, it is clear that the goal of the G4 is to obtain permanent seats.

The proposal is questioned by the other faction in the reform battle, the so-called Uniting for Consensus movement, represented by Italy, Pakistan and other mid-sized nations. They are calling for ten new non-permanent seats, to a total of 25 seats, and are trying to stop any country from obtaining a permanent seat.

Another important part of the reform process refers to the working methods of the Security Council. Late last year, Security Council Report, a research institute part of Columbia University, published a report on this topic, addressing four key areas: transparency; participation; accountability; and efficiency.

Looking back over the period from 1993 to 2007, the report concluded that “it seems that, on the issue of the working methods, momentum depends less on the substantive issues themselves and more on the inclination, personality and determination of individual permanent representatives, willing to take up the issues.”

“Those with an interest in and commitment to a particular aspect of working methods, regardless of whether they represented a permanent or elected member state, have usually had considerable success, at least at the early decision-making stage,” the report reads. “And those issues that had a succession of interested permanent representatives seem to have seen more success in being consistently implemented.”

The same, I believe, can be said for the enlargement process of the Council.

Here are some interesting recent articles:
- New momentum for U.N. Security Council reform and expansion
- Expansion Negotiations Move Forward for 
UN Security Council Members
- German Hopes for Security Council Seat Get Boost
- Australia Backs India and Japan Security Council Bid