The Security Council is usually considered as the most important organ of the UNO. Primarily "responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security" , the Security Council has huge responsibilities and thus needs legitimacy to fulfill its mission. There has been a great demand for a reform of the UN, and one of the greatest challenges is the reform of the Security Council, which would be "a decisive test of its capacity for comprehensive reform of any kind." However, no reform has been successfully implemented yet and it is therefore necessary to analyze both the reasons why this organ should be reformed and what the various solutions might be.Why should we reform the UN Security Council? Since its foundation in San Francisco in June 1945, the UN Security Council has only been reformed once: that was in 1965, when the General Assembly adopted an amendment extending the size of the Council from 11 members (5 permanent and 6 non-permanent) to 15 (with 4 new non-permanent members). The two other important changes were the replacement of Taiwan by the Popular Republic of China in 1971 and of the dissolved USSR by the Russian Federation in 1991.
[...] “increase the involvement in decision-making of those who contribute most to the UN financially, militarily and diplomatically” 2. “Bring into the decision-making process countries more representative of the broader membership” 3. impair the effectiveness of the 4. “Increase the democratic and accountable nature of the body.”[7] The Panel recommended to raise the number of permanent members (without veto power) and to create new non-permanent seats that could be renewable. There would be 24 members for each block (i.e. Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Americas). [...]
[...] [This webpage lists various statements and reports of Japanese officials about the reform of the UN in general, and explains Japan's motives for being a SC permanent member.] Reform the UN (url: http://www.reformtheun.org), Security Council Reform. [This website provides a lot of important documents and links to discover all the propositions of reform and the positions of member states: the most important source.] Reports and press releases A More Secured World: Our Shared Responsibility, Report of the Secretary General's High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, New York: United Nations [This report is a global reflection on the reform of the UN, not only the UNSC. [...]
[...] Security Council would consist of 20 elected members, serving for a two-year term, in addition to the five permanent members.”[9] Those countries criticized the position of G4 countries that did not intend to represent their regions but merely their self-interest, whereas the election of more non-permanent members would enable more diversity and a better representation of all the continents What are the main debates? The first issue concerns the size of the Security Council: it was created to be an efficient and manageable organ that would be able to maintain the peace through quick and negotiated reactions. [...]
[...] This support to various and competing countries might hide a desire to make the reform impossible as it will never be possible to give everyone a permanent seat Bibliography Books Bourantonis, Dimitris, The History and Politics of UN Security Council Reform, New York: Routledge [This books provides with a complete presentation of the history of the UNSC and the most important issues but doesn't unfortunately analyze the evolutions since 2000.] Franda, Marcus, The United Nations in the twenty-first century, Management and Reform Processes in a Troubled organization, Lanham: Rowland and Littlefield very complete and up-to-date analysis of the reform process, that might even go to far in the details and the various elements of reform but presenting all the key issues.] Gareis, Sven Bernhard, and Johannes Varwick, The United Nations an introduction, New York: Palgrave [The authors dedicated only a few but very dense pages dealing with the reform of the UNSC, giving elements for further research about one particular country's position or more details about a proposition of reform.] Websites Germany's Federal Foreign Office, (url: http://www.auswaertiges- amt.de/diplo/fr/ Aussenpolitik/VereinteNationen/DUndVN/SRdtPosition.html), Reform of the United Nations Security Council the German position. [...]
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