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POLITICS: South Takes Aim at Security Council Elitism

Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 27 2008 (IPS) - A major group of the world's developing nations is calling for the U.N. Security Council to be more open and accountable for its decisions on issues of international peace and security.

During an open debate Wednesday, the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) charged that the Council was largely failing to demonstrate transparency and accountability in its decision-making ways.

"Transparency, openness and consistency are key elements that the Council should observe in all its activities," said Ileana Nunez Mordoche, who spoke on behalf of NAM members. "Regrettably, [it] has neglected all these factors on numerous occasions."

The meeting was called by the Council president to discuss the Council's working methods, including implementing the measures set out in a presidential note some two years ago.

Many diplomats who took part in the debate held the Council needed immediate changes in its decision-making procedures because in recent years the demand for U.N. peacekeeping and conflict prevention has grown manifold.

"The Security's Council's increasingly complex responsibilities in the maintenance of international peace and security means it is vital that the 15-member panel continue to try to improve its working methods," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

But observers say substantial changes in the existing procedures are unlikely to occur as long as the Council remains subservient to the interests of the five major powers, namely the United States, Britain, France, Russia, and China, also known as the P5.

The P5, which hold veto powers and possess huge nuclear arsenals, do not want to see any major procedural changes that would even slightly lessen their special status and influence on decision-making. To discuss important matters, they turn to each other first.

According to South African ambassador D.S. Kumalo, "They usually operate in secrecy and seek to impose their views on the rest of the membership of the Council by drafting resolutions that the Council is then expected to endorse without any further discussion."

To Kumalo, who has served as the Council president in the recent past, the P5 is a "small group phenomenon, which presents a problem given our desire for transparency and political inclusiveness."

Like Japan, Germany, India and Brazil, South Africa is one of the candidates for permanent membership of the Council. The Council's expansion has been on the agenda for more than a decade, but member nations have failed to agree on its size and powers.

The current Council reflects the power structure of 1945 when those who won World War II acquired their privileged status. In its current form, the Council also remains imbalanced in favour of the industrialised North.

Like Kumalo, critics have long argued that the Council is undemocratic and that its effectiveness and legitimacy cannot be sustained unless it responds to the needs and demands of today's world.

"While we are happy to discuss the Council's working methods in an open debate in this Council, I must emphasise that this is an issue that transcends the limited membership of this body," said Ambassador Nirupam Sen of India, a country with population of more than a billion.

Sen argued that the extent of interest among non-Council members and the fact that the Council acts on behalf of the larger membership reinforce the point that the General Assembly has a legitimate role in deliberating upon the working methods of the Council.

The U.N. General Assembly has 192 members, but unlike the Security Council, its decisions cannot be implemented by force.

Sen pointed out that troop-contributing nations have long sought to be involved in decision-making in peacekeeping operations, "rather than being consulted in pro forma manner." He said there was a lack of access to information and documentation.

In contrast to observations made by diplomats from the developing countries, the U.S. representative Alejandro Wolff said that there had been an "ongoing dynamic effort" to ensure that the Council's work was readily available to all U.N. members, and noted many improvements.

Though pleased with the fact that the Council was willing to improve its working methods and decision-making rules, Sen said many flaws were only a symptom of "a deeper malaise that lies in its structure and composition."

"It is sometimes argued we could consider reform of the working methods of the Council as an end in itself," he said. "However, in the real world, achieving a genuine, lasting and necessary improvement in the working methods of the Council cannot be divorced from the expansion of the numbers of permanent members."