NEW YORK: Pakistan has called for ensuring fair regional representation on a reformed UN Security Council by adding more non-permanent seats to the 15-member body.
“Equitable representation has been the primary impulse behind all Security Council reform efforts,” Ambassador Munir Akram said while taking part in the long-running Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) aimed at restructuring the Council to make it more representative, transparent, effective and accountable.
“In 1945, the Security Council represented 20 per cent of the membership of the UN; today, it represents 8 percent of the membership,” the Pakistani envoy said, also pointing out that nearly a third of the membership has never served on the Council.
“Thus, the Council’s membership/size must be expanded to embrace the possibility of every UN Member State being elected to the Council,” he added.
Noting dissatisfaction with the Council stemming from the role of permanent members, Ambassador Akram said, “Only an acceptable formula with an increase in the non-permanent members, and rotation through democratic elections, can provide more equitable representation for all States on the Council.
“Such rotation, combined with regional representation, offers possibilities for a fuller representation of members of various groups of states.”
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.
Despite a general agreement on enlarging the Council, as part of the UN reform process, member states remain sharply divided over the details.
Known as the “Group of Four” India, Brazil, Germany and Japan have shown no flexibility in their campaign for expanding the Security Council by 10 seats, with six additional permanent and four non-permanent members.
On the other hand, the Italy/Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group strongly opposes any additional permanent members, saying that such a move will not make the Security Council more effective and also undermine the fundamental principle of democracy that is based on periodic elections.–Agencies
