Pakistan Says Consensus Exists Only On Adding More Non-permanent Seats To A Reformed UNSC

UNITED NATIONS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Nov, 2018 ) :Reaffirming its firm opposition to any expansion of permanent seats on UN Security Council (UNSC), Pakistan has told the General Assembly that the only common ground that exists is to add more elected, non-permanent members to the 15-member body.

"Evidently, while there is consensus on expansion in the non-permanent category, fundamental questions persist on the very need or desirability of expansion in the permanent category," Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said, while participating in the annual review of the ongoing Security Council reform process aimed at making it more effective, representative and transparent.

"If progress is indeed to be made, we must debunk the fallacy that expansion in the permanent category is intrinsic to reform of the Security Council," the Pakistani envoy said.

Work and effectiveness of the Council was not a function of its composition, much less of its permanent members, she added.

Full-scale negotiations to restructure the Security Council began in the General Assembly in February 2009. Despite a general agreement on enlarging the Council, as part of the UN reform process, member states remain sharply divided over the details.

Known as the "Group of Four" � India, Brazil, Germany and Japan � have shown no flexibility in their campaign to expand the Security Council by 10 seats, with 6 additional permanent and four non-permanent members.

On the other hand, the Italy/Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group say that additional permanent members will not make the Security Council more effective and also undermine the fundamental principle of democracy that is based on periodic elections.

The Security Council is currently composed of five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and 10 non-permanent members.

In her remarks, Ambassador Lodhi said that addition in permanent membership of the Council would not make it more effective.

"New permanency is seen as nothing but an imitation of old permanency, for it seeks to address inherent dysfunctionalities of the Council stemming from permanent membership and the veto, by reinforcing instead of reforming them," the Pakistani envoy told the 193-member Assembly.

In addition, she added, the democratic and representative nature of the reform process was also undermined. Not only more permanent members would deny the larger membership their democratic right to hold Council members to account, in an environment where nearly a third of the membership have never served on the Council, an expansion in the permanent category at the cost of non-permanent members would diminish prospects for many smaller states in particular, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), to ever be elected to the Council.

"Those who base their claim for permanent seats on the imperative to address contemporary realities in fact offer fixed solutions to transient situations," Ambassador Lodhi said.

The question of veto, she said, was another byproduct of permanence. "If the Council cannot reconcile the interests of its five permanent members, how will it cope with the interest of a bigger membership and still be effective," she asked.

On their part, Ambassador Lodhi said that non-permanent members have traditionally championed greater inclusiveness and transparency in the work of the Council, and in this category, the Council's deficit of representation could also be addressed.

"A solution that offers more seats to all the regions provides better opportunity for all member states, including cross-regional and sub-regional groups to serve on the Council," the Pakistani envoy said. That was why the UfC had proposed a significant increase in the number of elected seats for all regional groupings, especially Africa.

"It also sets into perspective our firm opposition to creation of new permanent seats, for fresh chains of inherited privilege would invariably threaten, not strengthen, norms of democracy, accountability and transparency in the Council." What was required now to move this process forward is to identify the convergences, and to build on them, she said. "Finding common ground requires flexibility and compromise by all sides." "Unless we are willing to go that extra mile, progress will remain elusive," the Pakistani envoy said.

The UfC had not only lived by these ideals but will continue to push for a comprehensive Security Council reform, taking into account the interests of all states, as anything less would be regression, not reform.

"After all, the burden of a large, unwieldy and inefficient Council confounded by an enlarged clique is an outcome that the international community neither seeks nor is it prepared to support," Ambassador Lodhi added.