New push to reform UN Security Council

The United Nations General Assembly opens a new chapter today in its nearly 30-year effort to reform the UN Security Council, plagued by national and regional rivalries that show no sign of abating.

The 192 UN member states will hold an informal meeting behind closed doors this afternoon to launch negotiations on revamping the UN's most powerful organ to reflect the world today rather than the global power structure after the Second World War when the United Nations was created.

While there is widespread support for reforming the Security Council, all previous attempts, starting in 1979, have failed because rivalries between countries and regions blocked agreement on the size and composition of an expanded council.

When the last session of the General Assembly was wrapping up its year-long work in September, it asked the current session to start intergovernmental negotiations on security council reform by February 28.

An Open-Ended Working Group of the assembly has been trying to tackle council reform for the past 16 years, so moving to negotiations among governments is a step forward.

The security council has 15 members - 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms who come from all regions of the world and five permanent members with veto power - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France.

Assembly president Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann sent a letter yesterday informing all 192 UN ambassadors that the first round of negotiations would consist of meetings on five key issues.

The first, on March 4, will tackle the different categories of security council membership. It will be followed by meetings on the veto and regional representation later in March.

The size of an enlarged council and its working methods, and the relationship between the council and the general assembly, will be up for consideration in April, and a second round of negotiations is scheduled for May.

"My sole concern rests with the integrity of the process and the attainment of decisive progress," Mr d'Escoto said in the letter.

But whether any progress can be made remains to be seen.

Deep divisions forced the general assembly to shelve three rival resolutions to expand the council in 2005.

The so-called Group of Four - Germany, Japan, Brazil and India - aspired to permanent seats without veto rights on a 25-member council. A group of middle-ranking countries, including Italy and Pakistan, who called themselves Uniting for Consensus, wanted a 25-member council with 10 new non-permanent seats.

The African Union, whose 53 members argue that their continent is the only one without a permanent seat on the council, wanted to add 11 new seats - six permanent seats including two for Africa with veto power, and five non-permanent seats.

Afghanistan's UN ambassador Zahir Tanin, who will chair the negotiations, said last week that the competition over different reform proposals had ended and negotiations towards compromises were about to begin.

"Security council reform is sometimes dismissed as a cocktail party pastime for ambassadors, but I think, if it was the case before, those days are definitely over," he said.

"It's up to the member states, in particular the five permanent (members), to help get the outcome that is needed."