Majority of UN members want changes in Security Council

Apr 20, 2007, 23:54 GMT

New York - An overwhelming majority of United Nations members want the politically powerful UN Security Council enlarged to include more countries, the president of the UN General Assembly said in a report released Friday.

The report said the current 15-nation council is 'not acceptable to an overwhelming majority of members states that feel the current situation should be improved.'

It said the dispute over the veto power of the current five permanent members and possible future members cannot be resolved at this stage of discussion.

The council is now composed of five permanent members and nuclear powers - the United States, Russia, France, China and Britain - which have veto power over UN resolutions. Ten countries, two from each continent, are elected to the council for two-year term.

Haya Rashed al-Khalifa, president of the 192-nation assembly, urged the membership to study the report and contribute ideas to maintain the momentum of the discussion and 'reach the broadest possible agreement' on reforming the council.

Countries that hope to become permanent members in an enlarged Security Council include Germany, Brazil, India and Japan, as well as Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt.

Pakistan, Italy and South Korea are leading a campaign to keep the current five permanent seats unchanged and opposed to the creation of new permanent seats. Pakistan is opposed to India becoming a permanent member of the council, while Italy is opposed to Germany and South Korea to Japan.

Germany, Brazil, India and Japan, known as the G4, met in Brasilia on Thursday and demanded 'an urgent' reform of the council.

Various compositions for an enlarged council have been discussed for more than a decade. The most accepted proposal is to increase it from 15 to at least 21 members, with the addition of new permanent and non-permanent seats. Proposals had been made to give non- permanent seats various terms of two or more years.

The five permanent members, while accepting reform, have never actively participated in discussions. They are also opposed to any attempts to remove their veto power.

Any reform measures of the Security Council must be adopted by the General Assembly by a two-thirds majority vote. Changing the number of seats in the council requires amending the UN Charter, which has not been thoroughly reviewed since 1945. For example, Germany and Japan are still referred to as enemy states in the UN Charter written by victors of World War II.

The report on reforming the Security Council calls for improving its working methods, enhancing accountability for the use of veto and limiting the scope of the veto.

It called for fair representation in the council for governments around the world.

'Any achievable solution must address the concerns of the wide majority of UN member aimed at enhancing their access, both in terms of increasing their chances to serve in the council and by being more intensively involved in the its work,' the report said.