New plans unveiled for Security Council reform
United
Nations,
Apr
21:
The
UN
General
Assembly
unveiled
proposals
that
would
send
plans
to
expand
the
elite
UN
Security
Council
back
to
the
drawing
board
and
instead
enlarge
the
elite
body
on
a
temporary
basis.
While
a
vast
majority
of
UN
members
believe
the
15-member
Council
is
unrepresentative,
dominated
by
industrial
nations,
a
report
yesterday
acknowledged
that
rivalries
on
who
should
have
a
seat
have
stymied
solutions
for
decades.
The
Security
Council,
the
most
powerful
UN
body,
which
can
make
mandatory
decisions
on
war
and
peace,
has
five
veto-bearing
permanent
members
given
seats
when
the
United
Nations
was
created
in
1945.
They
are
Britain,
China,
France,
Russia
and
the
United
States,
considered
World
War
II
victors,
while
another
10
nations
rotate
for
two-year
terms
according
to
regions.
The
new
report
was
requested
by
the
192-member
Assembly,
which
assigned
five
''facilitators,''
the
ambassadors
of
Chile,
Croatia,
Cyprus,
Netherlands
and
Tunisia,
who
drew
up
proposals
after
three
months
of
consultations.
Among
their
recommendations
were
a
series
of
transitional
arrangements,
which
would
be
reviewed
periodically.
This
could
include
added
temporary
seats,
semi-permanent
seats
and
other
variations
short
of
a
permanent
set-up.
''In
my
view
the
status
quo
is
unacceptable,''
said
Chile's
UN
Ambassador
Heraldo
Munoz.
The
hope
is
''to
suggest
directions,
to
rethink
what
has
already
been
posed
as
solutions''
to
break
the
deadlock.
Officials
from
four
countries
who
want
permanent
seats
--
Brazil,
Germany,
India
and
Japan
--
met
this
week
in
Brasilia
to
discuss
their
position.
Their
plan,
draw
up
in
2005,
also
calls
for
two
permanent
seats
from
Africa.
Of
the
four
India
is
said
to
be
the
most
adamant
on
obtaining
a
permanent
council
seat.
Another
group
of
medium-sized
countries,
which
includes
Pakistan
and
Italy,
have
advocated
an
additional
10
nonpermanent
seats
for
various
terms.
But
unlike
other
UN
reforms,
compromise
was
nearly
impossible
as
seats
on
the
council
meant
winners
and
losers,
with
each
candidate
having
drawn
enough
opposition
to
prevent
any
plan
from
gaining
a
two-thirds
vote
in
the
Assembly.
The
last
step
in
the
process
is
a
UN
Charter
change,
which
must
be
approved
by
national
legislatures,
and
here
the
current
five
permanent
members
have
veto
power.
The
Bush
administration
has
said
it
would
go
for
''two
or
so''
more
permanent
members,
without
veto
power,
for
a
total
of
five
or
six
additional
seats.
''A
significant
number
of
member
states
tend
to
agree
that
their
ideal
solution
may
not
be
possible
at
this
stage,
and
believe
that
it
may
be
more
reasonable
to
consider
the
best
possible
solution
for
now,''
the
report
said.
Expansion
of
the
council
needs
to
be
based
on
a
country's
contribution
to
peace
and
security
as
well
as
an
equitable
geographical
distribution.
Enlargement
should
also
''address
the
under-representation
of
developing
countries
as
well
as
small
states,''
the
report
said.
Reuters
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