Reform of the UN Security Council

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Meeting room of the United Nations Security Council

A reform of the UN Security Council has been discussed in politics and political science since the early 1990s . Since the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched a process to reform the United Nations in 2003 , reform of the UN Security Council has been part of this debate.

A reform of the UN Security Council according to Article 108 of the UN Charter requires a two-thirds majority of the member states of the United Nations in the UN General Assembly . In order for such a reform to come into force, it must then be ratified by two thirds of the UN member states and the five permanent members of the Security Council (P5). The possibility of blocking the permanent members of the Security Council makes reform of the Security Council particularly difficult.

The changes discussed essentially cover five subject areas: categories of membership in the UN Security Council, the question of the veto right of the five permanent members of the Security Council, the balance of regional representation, the size and functioning of the reformed Security Council and the relationship of the Security Council to the UN General Assembly .

Security Council reforms in the past

Between 1946 and the first reform of the UN Security Council , the body had 11 seats, five of which were permanent. Since the number of UN members more than doubled in the course of the decolonization process in the first twenty years of its existence, the voices were already loud in the 1960s following an enlargement of the UN Security Council and a more even geographical distribution of seats. The Non-Aligned Movement was in 1963, a majority in the General Assembly for an expansion of the Security Council. With the abstention of Great Britain and the USA and against the votes of France and the USSR, the 1991 resolution was adopted by an overwhelming majority. Ultimately, however, not only more than two-thirds of the UN members, but also the five permanent members of the Security Council ratified the resolution, so that the expansion of the Security Council was successful.

Reform proposals after the East-West conflict

A new debate about the reform of the UN Security Council flared up after the end of the East-West conflict against the background of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. Resolution 678 of the UN Security Council gave the US-led coalition for the liberation of Kuwait the right use all means necessary to drive back the Iraqi army. With this first peacebuilding operation initiated by the Security Council, the number of voices calling for a reform of the body also increased. In December 1992 India and Japan asked the General Assembly of the United Nations Secretary-General to make proposals for reform of the Security Council.

After a large part of the members of the United Nations had submitted proposals for reform of the Security Council, the General Assembly set up the Open ended working group on the question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and other matters related to the Security Council . The reform of the Security Council was institutionalized in the United Nations.

Commission on Global Governance

In its 1995 report, Our Global Neighborhood , which was submitted and controversially discussed, the Commission on Global Governance also made proposals for reforming the UN Security Council. The commission named the poor level of representation of the Security Council as a problem that would lead to a legitimation crisis of the most important UN body. The Commission's proposal provides for eight new seats, including up to five permanent seats with no veto rights. The report calls for balanced regional representation and the consideration of the world's largest economies. The distribution of the temporary seats remains unclear in the proposal of the Commission on Global Governance.

Razali plan

In March 1997, after the open ended working group had already existed for three years, the Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismail submitted a proposal for a reform of the Security Council, which he hoped would win a majority. It provided for a new permanent seat without veto power for Germany, Japan, an African, Asian and Latin American country. The number of non-permanent seats should be increased from 10 to 14, with one new seat each for Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. However, there was no sign of a majority for Razali's proposal. By 1997, the OEWG had worked out a large number of reform proposals, especially for Cluster I, although it was difficult to establish clear commitments and majorities of the participants during the meetings. This meant that a number of proposals were discussed within the working group without a final result of the negotiations, which could have served as a basis for the general assembly. The models for expanding the SR are different. Some provide for an increase in permanent and non-permanent seats to be occupied by both developed and developing countries: two additional permanent members and up to eight non-permanent members. Opinions also differed with regard to the use of the veto. Some advocated expanding the veto to include new, permanent members, while others saw the veto in itself as an undemocratic privilege that should be abolished after the end of the Cold War.

Models of the high-level panel on threats, challenges and change

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , the question arose of how the Security Council can help ensure collective security. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan therefore set up the High-level Panel of Eminent Personalities in 2003 , which was supposed to make proposals for reforming the United Nations, among other things. As there was no agreement within the body, two different proposals for reform of the Security Council were submitted. Both models provide for an expansion of the Security Council to 24 members. Model A provides for six new permanent seats without the right of veto, while Model B provides for no further permanent seats to be set up and instead designing eight of the nine new seats as quasi-permanent seats that will be occupied for four years and for which an immediate candidacy is possible.

G4 proposal

In July 2005, the G4 states Brazil , Germany , India and Japan , all of which have been considered potential candidates for a permanent seat on the Security Council since the mid-1990s at the latest, made a proposal for reform of the Security Council. Like the Razali plan, it provides for six new permanent seats without the right of veto, four of them for the G4 countries and two for African countries. The number of non-permanent seats is to be increased by four (one seat each for the Latin American, Asian, African and Eastern European groups), so that the Security Council under this model would have a total of 25 members.

Uniting for Consensus

Under the leadership of Italy, shortly after the G4 model was presented, a group of states appeared under the name Uniting for Consensus . The group unites states that see their role in the international system threatened with the candidacy of new permanent members in the Security Council. Their proposal rejects the establishment of new permanent seats in the Security Council and instead advocates the creation of ten new non-permanent seats and the possibility of re-election for the 20 non-permanent seats.

African Union proposal

The African states, the second largest regional group of the United Nations, also brought their own proposal into the debate in 2005. With a new size of the Security Council of 26 seats, this demands six new permanent seats with veto rights, two each for Africa and Asia and one for Western Europe and Latin America. Since the creation of new permanent seats with the right of veto is rejected in particular by the P5, this proposal has no chance of implementation from the outset.

The L69 group

This group was formed in 2007 under the leadership of India and, as a representative of initially 27 states, submitted a more general proposal to expand the SR in both categories (permanent and non-permanent members), combined with a more equitable geographical distribution and taking developments into account - and emerging markets. According to the proposal, seats for permanent membership should be allocated to Africa, Asia, Latin America, Western Europe and other countries; Among the non-permanent members there is to be an additional seat on the rotating principle for small island states. A total of around 25 members is considered to be optimal, although the working methods of the SR should be adapted accordingly.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Resolution 1991 of the UN General Assembly of December 17, 1963
  2. ↑ Resolution A / Res / 47/62 of the UN General Assembly of December 11, 1992
  3. ↑ Johannes Bullmann, 2014, The UN Security Council and its Reform - Doomed to Fail?
  4. ^ Eva Mareike Schmitt: World order in revision. German policy on the reform of the Security Council 1990-2005. Wiesbaden 2013, p. 406.
  5. ^ Tilman-Ulrich Pietz: Between interests and illusions. German foreign policy and the reform of the United Nations Security Council. Marburg 2007, p. 36.
  6. ↑ Johannes Bullmann: The UN Security Council and its Reform - Doomed to Fail? 2014, ISBN 978-3-8428-7351-3 .