07 Mar

UNSC Reforms

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Contents

• Introduction
• Membership
• Elections
• Why demands for reforms and Expansion at UNSC
• Demands for reforms on 5 key issues
• Why do India demand more permanent role at UNSC?/ India’s Bid for UNSC
• Challenges to India’s UNSC membership

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Important Quotes:

• “The world has changed. Our institutions have not. We can’t effectively address problems as they are if institutions don’t reflect the world as it is.”: UN’s Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

Introduction

• The UNSC is one of the six principal organs of United Nations. It was formed immediately after World War – II with the prime responsibility of maintaining international peace and security.
• It achieves this through investigating any dispute which may lead to international friction, regulating armament, peace keeping operations, international sanctions and authorization of military actions.
• The Security Council has a special place among the UN organs as it is the only organ that has the powers to take binding decisions that member states have agreed to carry out (Article 25 of UN Charter).
• Other crucial functions of UNSC include recommending admission of new members to UN and to recommend to the general assembly the appointment of secretary general and together with the assembly, elect the judges of the ICJ.

Membership

• The UNSC consists of 15 members.
  • Of these 5 members are permanent with veto powers (USA, UK, France, Russia and China) and remaining 10 are non-permanent members who are elected by UNGA (at least 2/3rd votes) on a regional basis to serve a term of two years. Five non-permanent members are elected every year.

Regional Groups from which non-permanent members come:

• African group – 54 – 3
• Asia-Pacific group – 53 -2
• Eastern European – 23 -1
• Latin America and Caribbean – 33 – 2
• Western European and other groups – 28 – 2

Elections: NP members chosen by regional groups – confirmed by UNGA.

• A member country needs to secure the votes of 2/3rd of the members present and voting at the General Assembly session (i.e. minimum 129 votes if all 193 member states participate.
• India has so far been a non-permanent member of the UNSC eight time: 1950-51, 1967-68, 1972-73, 1977-78, 1984-85, 1991-92, 2011-12 and 2021-22.

UNSC members are always present at UNHQ to meet at any time.

Presidency held for a month by a member on rotational basis of English alphabet.

Why demands for reforms and Expansion at UNSC

• Undemocratic
  • Only a few countries are able to take many important decisions.
  • If we exclude China, the other 4 P-5 countries only contribute to 7% of the world’s population.
• Anachronistic – changing global order.
  • Since its inception, the global order has witnessed significant shift.
    • Number of countries have increased; we have shifted to a multipolar world; a population explosion (from 2.2 billion to nearly8 billion)
  • Thus, current composition of UNSC represent the post WW-II realities and have not kept pace with the changing nature of the geopolitical scenario.
• Inequitable economic and geographical representation
  • Economic powers like Japan, Germany, India and Brazil are not Part of P5.
  • UNSC’s 75% work is focused on Africa, and still, they don’t have any permanent membership.
• Regional Distribution of seats are also unfair.
  • Europe, for instance, accounts for 5% of the world’s population, but it still controls 33% of the seats in any given year.
  • Even for non-permanent seats, more than 50 Asia Pacific countries vie for 2 seats and around 30 west European and other groups have been allocated 2 seats.
• Too powerful
• Weapons exporting countries at the helm.
  • It hinders disarmament and somehow negatively impacts world peace and security.
• P-5 countries involved in a number of conflicts.
  • e.g. US, Russia, China etc.
• Continuation of North-South Divide

Demands for reforms on 5 key issues.

• Categories of membership
• Veto power
• Regional representation
• Size of the enlarged council and its working methods
• Security council general assembly relationship

G-4 countries bidding for permanent membership of UNSC.

• Germany – among the largest contributors to UN, most well-functioning economy of Europe
• Japan
  • One of the largest contributors
  • Behaved impeccably in international forums since the UN got formed in 1945
• Brazil – 5th largest territory, most suitable to represent South American continent
• India – 2nd largest population
  • Largest average contributor to UN Peace Keeping force

Coffee Club /Uniting for Consensus

• Italy, Spain, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, South Korea and Pakistan
• Opposed to G-4 becoming permanent members with a veto power
• Favors expansion of the non-permanent seats with regional representation.

Africa Group

• Demands two permanent seats, because of historical injustices
• Council’s agenda largely concentrated on the continent

L69 Group

• It is a group of developing countries from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Pacific (Small Island Developing States). They form a major bloc that is united by the common cause of achieving the lasting and comprehensive reform of the UNSC by expanding both permanent and non-permanent seats.
• It currently has 32 members.
• The group derives it name from the draft document number “L.69” that the group had tabled in 2007-08, which led to the initiation of the Intergovernmental Negotiation (IGN) process.
• Note: India is a member of the grouping.

Reforms are difficult because of stringent provisions

• Bar on amending UN Charter has been kept very high:
  • Reform requires the agreement of atleast two-third of UN member states (129/193) and that of all the P-5 members of UNSC enjoying the Veto right.
• Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) on Security Council Reform has been going on since last 13 years. They have been working on various aspects of reform, including categories of membership, issues relating to the veto power and regional representation.
  • The IGN has been extremely difficult, contentious and complicated because of the different groups, their views and different interests. This has resulted into very little progress over the last 1 decade.
• Finally, the P-5 members inherently have been opposed to expansion of veto or permanent status. Those who already have power are always reluctant to share it.
  • For e.g., China has been blocking efforts to begin formal negotiations on UNSC expansion, saying that there is no need to rush through the reforms.

Why do India demand more permanent role at UNSC?/ India’s Bid for UNSC:

• Amongst all the aspirants who want to be permanent member of UNSC, India is the most vociferous one.
• India is eminently suited for permanent UNSC membership by any objective criteria, such as population, territorial size, GDP (3rd in terms of PPP), economic potential, Civilizational legacy, cultural diversity, political system (largest democracy) and past and ongoing contributions to UN Activities – especially to UN peacekeeping operations.
  • Largest average contributor to UNPKF
  • Elected 8 times in UNSC (1950-51, 1967-68, 1972-73, 1977-78, 1984-85, 1991-92, 2011-12, 2021-22)
  • India is also a nuclear weapon state.
• Advantages of permanent membership of UN
  • Better protection of India’s strategic interest at UNSC
  • Represent the interest of other developing countries.
  • Contribute to world peace.

Challenges to India’s UNSC membership:

• Difficulties of Inter-Governmental Negotiations – Differences between various countries, regional rivalries etc.
• Inherent opposition by P-5 countries to expand the veto power
  • China specially, has always obstructed the idea of India’s exclusion.
• G-4 has also limited options for sole negotiations.
• Resources allocated by India at UN for diplomacy -> lack of enough number of staff; budgetary share of India is also not in top 20.

Despite some of these challenges, GoI has accorded highest priority to its stand on getting a permanent seat in the expanded UNSC. To get international support needed, it has been actively raising issue in all important bilateral and multilateral forums. It has enhanced its engagement with the reform-oriented countries in the G-4; and with the L.69 Group – a cross regional group of countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Conclusion:

• Reforms are also necessary to make the UNSC more legitimate, effective, and representative in character and also to correct historical injustices in South Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Example Questions

• What are the functions of United Nations Security Council? Why is there a consistent demand for reforms and expansion of UNSC? [15marks, 250 words]
• Discuss the impediments India is facing in its pursuit of a permanent seat in UNSC. [10 marks,150 words] [CSM 2015]