A senior Pakistani diplomat told the United Nations General Assembly that the candidates for permanent seats on an expanded Security Council –India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, known as G4 — were blocking the reform of the 15-member Council aimed at making it more effective, as he said they were unwilling to accommodate the interests of wider UN membership.
“The inability to reach agreement on the reform does not stem from flaws in the reform process itself, but rather from the position of a few Member States unwilling to accommodate the broader interests and perspectives of the wider UN membership,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, said on Tuesday, without naming the countries.
Instead of a ‘reform for all’, they are seeking ‘privilege for some”, he said during a debate on restructuring the Security Council.
“Now that is the biggest ‘road block’ to reforms,” Ambassador Asim Ahmad added.
Full-scale negotiations to reform the Security Council began in the General Assembly in February 2009 on five key areas — the categories of membership, the question of veto, regional representation, size of an enlarged Security Council, and working methods of the council and its relationship with the General Assembly.
Progress towards restructuring the Security Council remains blocked as G-4 countries continue to push for permanent seats in the Council, while the Italy/Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group opposes any additional permanent members. arguing it would create “new centers of privilege”.
As a compromise, UfC has proposed a new category of members — not permanent members — with longer duration in terms and a possibility to get re-elected.
The Security Council is currently composed of five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — and 10 non-permanent members elected to two-year terms.
“The reform of the Security Council involves vital interests of all UN Member States, and must, therefore, be decided by the widest possible support of the UN membership i.e. by consensus,” the Pakistani envoy said.
“Only an acceptable formula with an increase in the non-permanent members, and fair rotation through regular elections, can provide more equitable representation for all States on the Council,” Ambassador Asim Ahmad said. “This is also the essence of democracy”
Opposing any addition of new individual permanent members in the Council, he said that concepts of permanency, privilege and special status should have no place in today’s United Nations. “The reform of the Council should, therefore, enhance the voice of all UN Member States.”
“Today, nothing is more anachronistic than the individual permanent membership, a category of members who unashamedly pursue their own national interest, represent no body, and are accountable to no one.
“We cannot close our eyes to the historical reality that permanent membership and the veto have often been the root causes of the Council’s paralysis, and non-transparent working methods.”
The long-running Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) reform process, he said, was a member state-driven mechanism that has progressively expanded areas of convergence and narrowed those of divergence.
“We firmly believe that for the benefit of the entire UN membership, member states must be allowed the necessary time and space to reconcile and broaden the areas of convergence and reduce divergences under the five clusters, which are inherently interlinked.”
The Pakistani envoy said efforts toward consensus have been obstructed by demands from certain countries seeking permanent membership in an expanded Council.
“Such aspirations contradict the fundamental principle of sovereign equality,” he said.
The Uniting for Consensus proposal, he said, represented an objective, balanced, flexible and inclusive approach designed to accommodate the legitimate interests of all Member States and regions.
“The group maintains that expansion should occur only in the elected non-permanent category, in line with the UN Charter. Each region could, however, be assigned longer-term seats, including possibility of re-election.”