POLITICS: Norway Faces Tough Stint As Security Council Member

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jan T. Skjelbek

OSLO, Dec 4 2000 (IPS) - Norway cheers after having won one of the non- permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council.

However, Kirsti Svenning, researcher with the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), says the celebrations will have to end soon. She says that for the next two years the Scandinavian country will have to take a serious stance on controversial international matters.

Svenning says that in the past it has been easy for Norway to hide its political ideas away from the rest of the world and leave the entire responsibility to the members of the Security Council.

“Up to now it has not been necessary for Norway to express a specific opinion in several cases, for example the sanctions against Iraq. (Now), as a member of the Security Council, it is expected that we take a clearer stand in controversial matters,” she adds.

“Norway has been central in important international matters before, such as in the Oslo-process while negotiating peace in the Middle East, but in this and other cases our role was only to arrange and to organise meetings between the parties in the negotiations,” she explains.

According to Svenning, Norway’s strength in the Oslo-process was “not to take a stand”.

“Decisions taken by Norway, as a member of the Security Council, can also attract unwanted international attention. Norwegians may, all of a sudden, be drawn into conflicts and experience hostility in countries they visit,” she says.

Svenning says this will be the scenario if the UN decides to call for harsher measures against, for example, Indonesia.

“It may well mean trouble carrying a Norwegian passport to that country if we are (perceived to be) responsible (for) introducing sanctions against it.”

After a fourth round Norway managed to win with 115 votes against Italy’s 57 in the elections held at the 55th General Assembly of the UN on October 10 2000.

By this victory Norway will fill one of two non-permanent seats in the Council allocated to the Western European and Other States Group (WEOG) for the term 2001 to 2002.

The social democratic government in Oslo boasts of being one of the main contributors to the economic, social and humanitarian programmes of the UN.

The authorities also like to boast of the fact that Norway allocates an impressive 0,9 percent of it’s Gross National Product (GNP) to development projects in the Third World.

Last, but not least, the government would like to draw attention to the fact that Norway, with a population close to four and a half million, is a major contributor to the UN peace keeping operations.

At the UN Millennium Assembly at the beginning of September the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Thorbjxrn Jagland, emphasised that: “Norway will insist on continuing to strengthen the capacity and ability of the United Nations in conflict prevention and resolution.”

Since 1948 Norway has participated in 24 UN peace keeping operations – in which the 20-year involvement in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) from the start in 1978 – has been the largest operation. Currently Norway takes part in around half of the UN peace keeping operations being carried out in the world.

The government has expressed hope that the UN will continue to thwart and reverse aggression in conflicts around the globe and Norway insists that it is the right country to help and support the Security Council in doing so.

There are several examples of areas of conflict in which the UN has been criticized for not doing what it was supposed to – namely maintain international peace and security. The critics have, for example, been particularly loud when it came to creating peace in Kosovo, Somalia and Rwanda.

The government of Norway does, however, not like to cite the majority of the UN operations as examples of failures. According to Oslo the UN has contributed to peace in Cambodia, Cyprus, El Salvador and Guatemala. Oslo insists on supporting and strengthening the peace operations of the UN.

“We will continue to work for a coordinated and comprehensive approach by the United Nations and its various bodies and agencies towards crisis management, where humanitarian assistance, conflict resolution, peace-keeping and long-term development cooperation form an integrated whole,” promises Jagland.

“In the Security Council, Norway will also advocate openness, transparency and accountability towards the UN membership at large. We will work to improve consultation procedures with non- members of the Council. As a small state, Norway will feel a particular obligation towards other small states from all regions.”

Svenning recognises the fact that it will be more than difficult to make the rest of the Security Council play along with all the ideas put forward by Norway.

Especially taking into consideration that the five permanent members in the Council – Britain, China, France, the United States, and Russia, which holds the seat formerly held by the Soviet Union – have veto power.

This means that these five can block any resolution they want to. The 10 other rotating members in the body, soon to include Norway, is thus playing second fiddle when it comes to making decisions in the Council.

The researcher on UN politics, therefore, stresses that the government most probably will focus on only one or two important matters in the two years Oslo is in the Council.

“By concentrating on only some few cases,” says Svenning, “one can have a much better chance at winning the Security Councils’ approval and recognition.”

One such matter that may be the focal point of Oslo, is the strengthening of the UN peace keeping operations. Norway may chose to use the UN to a much larger extent than today to accomplish peace in countries as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sierra Leone.

Svenning also hopes that the peacemaking efforts of Norway, through the Oslo process, will serve as a basis of solution-making for the Security Council.

Hopefully the idea of peace through the Oslo-process can find a solution to the boycott of Iraq that punishes President Saddam Hussein, but at the same time assures that the population of that country receives the food and medicines they need to live a normal life.

Another matter very near to the heart of the Oslo government, is development aid. The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), a directorate under the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (UD), hope that the amount of assistance the Norwegian state gives to developing nations will be followed up by other western countries.

According to NORAD large and economically powerful countries in the western world can contribute more in promoting peace, democracy and human rights in the Third World.

The Agency hopes that Oslo can use its influence in the Security Council to achieve lasting improvements in political, economic and social conditions for entire populations in the South.

There are five permanent and 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council. From January 1 2001 Colombia, Ireland, Mauritius, Norway and Singapore will fill the seats vacated on December 31 by Argentina, Canada, Malaysia, Namibia and the Netherlands.

Norway and the other four new countries will join the other non- permanent members Bahrain, Brazil, Gabon, Gambia and Slovenia.

Norway has thrice been a member of the UN Security Council: In the periods 1949-50, 1963-64 and the last time from 1979 to 1980.