{"id":109563,"date":"2020-12-09T18:26:06","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T01:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=109563"},"modified":"2020-12-09T18:26:06","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T01:26:06","slug":"a-un-power-monopoly-that-needs-urgent-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/12\/09\/a-un-power-monopoly-that-needs-urgent-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"A UN power monopoly that needs urgent reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thalif Deen Courtesy The Daily News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"United<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

United Nations Security Council (UNSC)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will four\nstrong contenders for permanent seats in the UN Security Council (UNSC) \u2013\nGermany, India, Japan and Brazil\u2014help break the monopoly now being held by the\nbig five, namely the US, UK, France, China and Russia?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if they\ndo eventually succeed in their attempts\u2014after more than 20 years of\nfoot-dragging \u2014 they have to put up with what is best described as\nsecond-class citizenship\u201d, because the five, veto-wielding permanent members\n(P5) have given no indications that any new comers to their ranks will be\noffered veto powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Still, African leaders have\nlong insisted they will not accept any permanent memberships in the UNSC, the\nonly UN body with powers to declare war and peace, without veto powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And rightly\nso, because it entrenches political discrimination at the highest levels in a\nworld body which preaches the virtues of equality to the outside world but\nrefuses to practice it in its own backyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking on\nbehalf of the 54-member African Union, and addressing a General Assembly debate\nback in November 2018, the representative of Sierra Leone made it unequivocally\nclear Africa demands no less than two permanent seats, including the veto\npower, if it remains, and five non permanent seats\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\nposition has not changed\u2014and the deadlock over the reform of the UNSC\ncontinues\u2014and perhaps will continue during the rest of the lifetime of the\n75-year-old United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the appointment\nof two new envoys \u2014 Ambassador Joanna Wronecka of Poland and Ambassador Alya\nAhmed Saif Al-Thani of Qatar as co-chairs\u2013 there is a renewed attempt to resume\nthe stalled Intergovernmental Negotiations on UNSC reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an\ninterview with IPS, Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, a former President of the\nSecurity Council (March 2000 and June 2001) held out a bleak prospect: As a\npragmatic, realistic UN watcher and practitioner for nearly 50 years, I believe\nthe painstaking efforts for the SC reform has no prospect for a meaningful\nachievement and the status quo ante is doomed to continue\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if\nthe current attempt is just another exercise in political futility, he said any\nworthwhile initiative to revive the repeatedly stalled efforts for the Security\nCouncil reform\u201d generally creates a nice feel-good ambience full of\nexpectation, full of hope of the otherwise most-attainable success, full of\npreparations to finally breaking the deadlock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such an\nambience was perceived in every such occasion of resumption, but unfortunately\nit ended in coming to a grinding halt with the formal closer of that exercise,\nsaid Chowdhury, who was Permanent Representative Bangladesh to the UN\n(1996-2001) and UN Under-Secretary-General (2002-2007).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in\nthe true UN tradition, he pointed out, the agenda-item stays on and every\nPresident of the General Assembly (PGA) hopes against hope of a breakthrough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact,\nresuming that multi-stalled effort for a quarter of a century has given\nsubsequent PGAs a sense of glory and an aura of leadership \u2013 and also, many of\nus a feeling of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excerpts from the interview:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IPS: Why do you think the exercise is doomed to fail?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambassador Chowdhury:<\/strong> What is the rationale basis\nfor exploring the possibility for the Intergovernmental Negotiations to start\nearly in 2021 and to increase the number of meetings this session\u2026\u201d? Just for\nthe cosmetics of the exercise because the Security Council reform\u201d is on the\nagenda of the General Assembly? It should be understood that the general membership\nof UN and all well-meaning, peace-loving people aware of global realities are\nnot interested in the so-called reform of the Security Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There exist\nbigger challenges facing humanity which require more intense engagement of UN.\nThe much-expected change in view of the Covid-19 pandemic has bypassed the\nneeded change in the divisive negotiating atmosphere at the UN. It is still\nbusiness as usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IPS: What are your thoughts on the expansion of membership of the\nSecurity Council?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambassador Chowdhury:<\/strong> If the past trends of the\nUNSC reform exercises are any guide, the reform is envisaging four tiers of\nSecurity Council membership \u2013 one, five permanent members with veto (known as\nP-5); two, new permanent members without veto; three, 2-year non-permanent\nmembers both existing 10 plus the new ones; and four, the rest of the UN\nmembership who are not the Council members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such\nexpansion would not help in any way except adding to lop-sidedness of UNSC work\nand satisfying the nationalistic aspirations of new permanent members. The\nlofty objective of the reform exercise to reflect the realities of the current\nexpanded UN membership of 193 would lose all credibility if this is the\nintended outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, it is\nabsolutely fair to allocate two permanent seats to Africa as it is the largest\nregional group along with the fact that it did not have any permanent seat\nsince the creation of the UN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IPS: Do you think the closed, non-transparent decision-making by\nthe Security Council is an area concern in the reform exercise?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambassador Chowdhury:<\/strong> By itself, the current SC\ndecision making is not what the Charter had envisaged \u2013 role of P-5\noccasionally joined by their friendly\u201d non-permanent members make a mockery of\ntheir responsibility for the maintenance of the international peace and\nsecurity as the SC members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history\nof the Council decision-making makes it clear that its membership has been\nbasically used for reflecting national perspectives and advancing the\ngeo-strategic objectives of the P-5. Like many, I believe any meaningful reform\nof the Council has to start with the abolition of veto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is\nwell-known to all keen UN watchers how the veto \u2014 or in most cases the threat\nof veto \u2014 has been used and abused during 75 years of UN\u2019s existence to subvert\nthe best interests of global peace and security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IPS: In addition to the issue of expansion, the reform of the\nworking methods is also being addressed. How this concern can be addressed\nproperly?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambassador Chowdhury:<\/strong> Working methods reform would\nnot work just readjusting the procedural functions \u2013 without changing the\npolicy considerations, without coming out of the failed state-oriented security\nstrategies and replacing those with more people-oriented human security-oriented\nstrategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reforming\nworking methods without change of policy orientation would only be robotic in\nnature, without any focus on human dimensions of the Council\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IPS: Civil society has called, again and again, for an opportunity\nto present their thoughts on the SC reform. Is that deemed useful and\nnecessary?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambassador Chowdhury: <\/strong>Though the process is an\nintergovernmental one and thereby Member States-driven\u201d, as PGA has reiterated,\nabsence of civil society involvement would seriously undermine the role and\ncontribution of We the Peoples \u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When civil\nsociety in general feels it has no role, no opportunity to share its points of\nview, I believe that such a narrow non-inclusive, non-participatory exercise is\nbound to fail. PGA himself has also asserted that civil society is the pillar\nof democracy, and we must, after some time, find a way that civil society is\n(re)presented here\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IPS: What are some of the biggest failures of the UNSC over the\nyears?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambassador Chowdhury:<\/strong> I would not go into\nidentifying the cases where the Security Council failed big \u2014 the global peace\nand security situation testifies for that. I would rather identify the reasons\nwhich caused those failures and would continue to do so in future, again and\nagain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Structural\nissues and leadership opportunities within the Council is a major impediment.\nP-5 is happy with the status quo \u2013 the way the Council works \u2013 because they\nhave shaped it that way over the years to their advantage. All the substantive\nchange initiatives have come from the 2-year tenure of non-permanent members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npro-active role and guidance of the Secretary-General to the Security Council,\nwithout being unduly mindful of P-5 sensitivities,\u201d can bring in marked change\nin the directions of the Council\u2019s work. PGA has identified that the\nSecretary-General is the engine and the transmission system\u201d. After all, the\nSecretary-General has the moral authority and full mandate of the high office\nhe holds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IPS: Is big power rivalry, <\/strong>and\nprotection of client states, one of the reasons for the frequent deadlocks in\nthe UNSC over the years?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambassador Chowdhury:<\/strong> Not only big power rivalry\nhas caused deadlocks, big power collaboration\u201d has also resulted in halting a\npositive initiative in the best interest of the Security Council from the\nnon-permanent members. My own experience as the President of the Security\nCouncil in March 2000 explains that situation amply when I initiated the\npolitical and conceptual changes in the Council to recognize the equal participation\nand age-old contributions of women in global peace and security which finally\nresulted in the adoption of the most-widely acclaimed UN Security Council\nResolution 1325.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, I\nwould add that the only silver lining I find in the resumption of the reform\nnegotiations is the fact that the two Co-Chairs (Ambassadors of Poland and\nQatar) are both eminent women Permanent Representatives to the UN and, of\ncourse, fully qualified for this onerous and complicated responsibility. – IPS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thalif Deen Courtesy The Daily News United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Will four strong contenders for permanent seats in the UN Security Council (UNSC) \u2013 Germany, India, Japan and Brazil\u2014help break the monopoly now being held by the big five, namely the US, UK, France, China and Russia? But if they do eventually succeed in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}