NEW YORK, MAY 4 – All Member States of the United Nations accept expanding the category of 2-year term non-permanent members in an enlarged Security Council. The Uniting for Consensus Group believe that if we stop ignoring this key fact and in turn focus on it, the long sought-after reform for a Security Council truly fit for purpose could soon become a reality. This consideration was conveyed today by the Italian Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Maurizio Massari who coordinates the activities of Ufc.
Massari spoke during the fifth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council reform (IGN), which completes the calendar of meetings set for the current session. The Italian Ambassador took note of a document – the “Revised Co-Chairs’ Elements Paper” containing “Elements of Convergence” such as:
- the reform of the Security Council is a Member States driven process;
- the IGN is the legitimate and most appropriate platform to pursue the issue;
- the IGN should seek solutions that garner the widest political acceptance by Member States, as mentioned in Decision 62/557 and that, in light of the strong interlinkages between the five clusters, “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”
He advised, however, to include democracy among the core principles of the reform – efficiency, accountability, effectiveness, transparency – as it has been widely accepted by the membership, and warned against the paragraph stating that “there is growing convergence that the Security Council should also be enlarged either by increasing the number of permanent seats or by allowing consecutive 2-year term or introducing longer-term non-permanent seats to enable longer representation of more States on the Council.”
At the moment, said Massari – the only convergence among Member States refers to the possibility of a longer representation of more States in the Council, without any reference to specific options. “For UfC, this longer representation should occur by introducing longer-term, non-permanent seats. We absolutely reject the idea of an increase in the number of permanent seats, which can therefore not be listed within the convergences”. (@OnuItalia)
