General Assembly Session 50 meeting 59

Mr. Valencia Rodriguez (Ecuador)

Allow me first of all to express my delegation's appreciation to the Open-ended Working Group, which, under the chairmanship of the former President of the General Assembly, Mr. Amara Essy, was able to count on the selfless work of the two Vice-Chairmen, Ambassador Breitenstein of Finland and Ambassador Pibulsonggram of Thailand.

On the occasion of the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, the Heads of State and Government adopted a historic Declaration expressing the unanimous view of the international community that

"the Security Council must ... be expanded and its working methods reviewed in order to strengthen its capacity, increase its representative character and improve the efficiency and transparency of its working procedures". (resolution 50/6, para. 14)

This effort must be considered as a fundamental part of the restructuring of the United Nations that we are all working for, because the Security Council, as the main executive organ of the Organization, is the first to be called upon to take account of the consequences of the end of the cold war, the democratization process spreading around the world, and the need to strengthen the Council's authority and efficacy.

The Non-Aligned Movement has stressed the general criteria that must be borne in mind in connection with this process. First, the reform and expansion of the Council should be considered as a whole and as part of a single initiative. Secondly, the major principles that must be observed as this effort unfolds are the equal sovereignty of States and equitable geographical distribution. Thirdly, the objectives that must be pursued are transparency and democratization, as well as the strengthening of the responsibility of that organ.

Under the Charter of San Francisco, the relationship between the General Assembly -- the most important political forum of the international community -- and the Security Council must be precisely spelled out on the basis of the annual and special reports provided for in Article 15 and of the broad competence of the General Assembly as stipulated in Article 11.

Ecuador set forth these criteria in the Assembly's general debate. We stressed that the reform and new composition of the Security Council must more appropriately reflect the current membership of the United Nations and the new realities of the world so that the Council can promptly and efficiently adopt early warning measures to prevent conflicts, re-establish or consolidate peace, and deploy or continue peace-keeping operations.

Ecuador set forth its criteria for increasing the membership of the Security Council, during the discussion in the plenary Assembly last year. It stated, and now reiterates, its recognition of and support for the legitimate aspirations of countries such as Brazil, Germany and Japan, as well as of regions such as Africa and Asia, to be represented on the Security Council as permanent members. We also noted that these aspirations must be evaluated on the basis of the need to abide by equitable distribution among various geographical regions, so as to correct the existing imbalance, both in the permanent and in the non-permanent Membership, that favours a single region.

The Charter stipulates that the fundamental requirement for membership in the Security Council is a Member State's contribution to the maintenance of international peace and security and to the other purposes of the Organization. Consequently, becoming a member of the Security Council means not only shouldering major responsibilities for the costs of peace-keeping operations, but also contributing efficiently to the attainment of the other purposes enshrined in the Charter. Being a member of the Security Council involves great responsibilities but also entails the potential for bringing special influence to bear upon the international community.

Under Articles 24 and 25 of the Charter, the Security Council acts on behalf of the Members of the United Nations, and its decisions must be carried out by all of them. Thus, while those decisions have to be taken by the Members of the Council, the other countries have to be at least duly and properly informed of them. It should be recalled that the changes designed to achieve transparency in the work of the Security Council require changes also in the rules of procedure that will facilitate prior and at least rudimentary insight into what the Council may decide.

Ecuador does not support the extension of the veto privilege to other Security Council members, because that would increase the chances of paralysis in the Council's work. It must be recognized that the veto has had its merits and its grave defects.

In the middle of the cold war it made it possible for the great Powers to join the United Nations they themselves had established. If circumstances had been different, they might not have done so or might have deserted the Organization. It saved our Organization from extinction by keeping the great Powers from becoming involved in political and armed conflicts with unforeseeable consequences or in impossible missions. It promoted a sense of responsibility among those Powers, though not always fully. It fostered recognition of the need for the Big Five to consult and reduced the risk of a grave confrontation between power politics and the valid legal norms established in the Charter.

Nobody, however, disputes the fact that the veto is an anti-democratic privilege diametrically opposed to the principle of the sovereign equality of States. The circumstances that once justified its creation and retention over these 50 years have vanished. This prompts us to assert that that privilege must also cease to exist. Inasmuch as this is not realistically possible, since the Big Five are taking an inflexible posture in respect of retaining that power, we should ask them to act with a sense of responsibility attuned to current realities.

In this context, it is perhaps not too much to hope that they might voluntarily agree to restrict the use of this privilege so that it will be applied only in cases of measures envisaged in Chapter VII of the Charter with regard to maintaining and consolidating peace. This aspiration, or dream, could become a reality even by means of simple agreements between the Big Five or through minor procedural changes, thus making it unnecessary to undertake a complicated reform of the Charter.

If none of these initiatives meets with success, our remaining contingency step would perhaps be to promote only an increase in the number of non-permanent members on the basis of the principles I have just outlined. There are many proposals for attaining this end, including, for instance, the one submitted by Italy. What we cannot accept is the Council's continuing to function as it has and with a membership that does not reflect the considerable increase in the membership of the Organization.

Mr. Sengwe (Zimbabwe)

My delegation fully associates itself with the statement made by the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Colombia on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries.

The many changes that have taken place in our international relations must be reflected in the structures and practices of our international Organization. The United Nations system as a whole needs to be reformed and revitalized in order to render it transparent, accountable and democratic.

On the need to reform and expand the Security Council, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, in his address on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, had this to say:

"The Security Council, as now constituted, empowers only a small minority of the victorious allies of a war of half a century ago to continue to wield sweeping powers that enable it to take or block decisions affecting the destiny of the majority of Member States sitting in the General Assembly." (Official Records of the General Assembly, Fiftieth Session, Plenary Meetings, 40th meeting, p. 5)

The imbalances and inequities inherent in the present structures and practices of the Council, including permanent membership and the power of veto, defy logic and run counter to the very democratic principles and values that Member States are promoting in their domestic political practices. Permanent membership and the power of veto hold collective international decision-making hostage to the narrow interests of a privileged and powerful few. Democratization, transparency and equitable geographical representation should not be elements of dispute at all in this reform process. Ideally, and in the long term, all members of the Security Council should be elected on the basis of the principle of equitable geographical representation to ensure their accountability to the general membership of the Organization, on whose behalf, in accordance with the Charter they carry out their primary function of maintaining international peace and security.

It is regrettable that this logical and self-evident approach appears not to be acceptable to the present permanent members of the Security Council. The work done so far in the Open-ended Working Group of the General Assembly suggests that it will take time to tackle the issue effectively with this serious approach. In the meantime, therefore, we are forced to seek reform within the very narrow confines of outmoded structures and practices.

Proceeding from the premise that the Security Council acts on behalf of all States Members of the United Nations, it is logical that an expanded United Nations, which has grown from 51 Members in 1945 to the present 185, would dictate an increased membership of the Security Council if that subsidiary organ is to be representative and democratic. Debate on this issue has clearly demonstrated that the Council can no longer continue to operate as an exclusive club purporting to serve the interests of the full membership of the United Nations.

Furthermore, the permanent membership of the Council must reflect a fair geographical representation of all the regions of the world. In this regard, it is objectionable that all of Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean are unrepresented and Asia is underrepresented in the permanent membership of the Council.

We believe that Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean should each have at least two permanent seats, with incumbents enjoying the same rights and privileges as the present permanent members. Additional non-permanent seats should also be allocated to each of those regions so as to ensure equitable geographical representation commensurate with the vastly increased membership of the United Nations.

The veto, which we feel should eventually be abolished, should also be reviewed in the light of the changing international circumstances. Its scope and use should be limited, perhaps to those issues which are clearly and specifically related to the maintenance of international peace and security. Even then, is it not time for a separate voting mechanism to be introduced to validate or pass a veto?

It is equally imperative that new measures and practices be introduced to improve the Council's working methods and procedures, as well as to enhance its relationship with the general membership. Specifically, we believe that a formal mechanism should be established for collaboration between the Security Council and the General Assembly. Obviously, the Security Council's submission to the General Assembly of the traditional compendia of resolutions and statements, coupled with its occasional rounds of news bulletins and briefings, falls far short of any meaningful involvement of the general membership in the decision-making process. Cooperation between the Security Council and the General Assembly should be promoted to foster a freer flow of information and afford greater transparency and accountability to the international community.

Many of us had expressed, and indeed cherished, the hope that the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations would be an auspicious occasion for the baptism of a reformed and expanded Security Council. Debate on this issue has already distilled, though without total agreement, the major concepts whose due consideration could endow the Security Council with a minimum reflection of the universal character of the United Nations, and the present-day realities, which call for the widest possible participation in the Council's work and decision-making process.

We believe that the current lively and heavily subscribed debate on this question bears indisputable testimony to the urgent need for the membership of the Organization to gather courage and political will and tackle head-on this long-overdue exercise.

Mr. Hamdoon (Iraq)

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