Context: Despite consistent efforts by India and other countries, the move for United Nations Security Council (UNSC) reform and expansion has made ‘no progress’ so far. This was emphasised by the former Indian Ambassadors to the United Nations.
India continues to push its demand for inclusion in the top global decision-making body. India and its partners in the G-4 (Brazil, Germany and Japan) claim a permanent seat at the UNSC.
About Summit for the Future
- The Summit of the Future at the United Nations (September 22-23) is expected to bring together world leaders to discuss plans to ‘reboot’ the UN.
- Member States agreed to hold the Summit in September 2024. They also agreed that the Summit would have an outcome, ‘a Pact for the Future’.
- The proposal for a Summit of the Future originated in the Our Common Agenda report.
- Our Common Agenda is an agenda of action, designed to strengthen and accelerate multilateral agreements, particularly the 2030 Agenda, and make a tangible difference in people’s lives.
- It contains recommendations across 4 broad areas for: renewed solidarity between peoples and future generations, a new social contract anchored in human rights, better management of critical global commons, and global public goods that deliver equitably and sustainably for all.
- It presents the Secretary-General's vision on the future of global cooperation through an inclusive, networked, and effective multilateralism.
- They articulated the overarching purpose of the Summit, and the Pact: to reaffirm the UN Charter; to reinvigorate multilateralism; to boost implementation of existing commitments; to agree on solutions to new challenges; and to restore trust.
United Nations Security Council (UNSC):
- The UNSC is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and approving any changes to the UN Charter.
- Its powers as outlined in the United Nations Charter include:
- establishing peacekeeping operations, enacting international sanctions, and authorizing military action.
- The UNSC is the only UN body with authority to issue resolutions that are binding on member states.
- Like the UN as a whole, the Security Council was created after World War II to address the failings of the League of Nations in maintaining world peace.
- First session: 1946
- Resolutions of the Security Council are typically enforced by UN peacekeepers, which consist of military forces voluntarily provided by member states and funded independently of the main UN budget.
- The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court recognizes that the Security Council has authority to refer cases to the Court in which the Court could not otherwise exercise jurisdiction.
- The Council exercised this power for the first time in 2005, when it referred to the Court ‘the situation prevailing in Darfur since 2002’.
- Since Sudan is not a party to the Rome Statute, the Court could not otherwise have exercised jurisdiction.
- The body's presidency rotates monthly amongst its members.
Members of the UNSC:
The UNSC consists of five permanent members and ten non-permanent members.
Permanent Members:
- The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Permanent Five, Big Five, or P5) are the five sovereign states to whom the UN Charter of 1945 grants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and United States.
- All have the power of veto which enables any one of them to prevent the adoption of any ‘substantive’ draft Council resolution, regardless of its level of international support.
- Under Article 27 of the UN Charter, Security Council decisions on all substantive matters require the affirmative votes of three-fifths (i.e. nine) of the members.
- A negative vote or a ‘veto’ by a permanent member prevents adoption of a proposal, even if it has received the required votes.
- Abstention is not regarded as a veto in most cases, though all five permanent members must vote for adopting any amendment of the UN Charter or any recommendation of the admission of a new UN member state.
- This veto right does not carry over into General Assembly matters or votes, which are non-binding.
(India’s 2020 term ended in December 2022)
Non-Permanent Members:
- These ten non-permanent members are elected by the United Nations General Assembly for two-year terms starting on 1 January, with five replaced each year.
- To be approved, a candidate must receive at least two-thirds of all votes cast for that seat.
- A retiring member is not eligible for immediate re-election.
- The temporary members hold seats on a rotating basis by geographic region.
Membership reform:
- Their proposal is to create a new category of seats, still non-permanent, but elected for an extended duration (semi-permanent seats).
- Proposals to reform the Security Council began with the conference that wrote the UN Charter and have continued to the present day.
- There has been discussion of increasing the number of permanent members.
- The countries which have made the strongest demands for permanent seats are Brazil, Germany, India and Japan (G4 nations).
- Italy leads a movement known as Uniting for Consensus in opposition to the possible expansion of permanent seats. Core members of the group include Canada, South Korea, Spain, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Turkey, Argentina and Colombia.
- Their proposal is to create a new category of seats, still non-permanent, but elected for an extended duration (semi-permanent seats).