Security Council Working Methods
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Russia is the president of the Security Council this month. Its presidency will feature a ministerial-level debate late in the month on the cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organisations, with a focus on the role of the...
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When the UN Charter was drafted in 1945, it stipulated that the Security Council would be composed of five permanent members and six elected members. By the 1960s there was a desire to expand Council membership, reflecting the increase in UN membership from the 51 founding member states to 113 by 1963. That year, the General Assembly adopted resolution 1991 A (XVIII), which added four non-permanent members to the Council. The ratification process was completed in 1965. Almost 55 years later, there has been no further change in Council membership. Those in favour of reform maintain that the Council’s membership no longer reflects geopolitical realities and point to the continuing increase in UN membership, which now stands at 193.
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Tomorrow (Tuesday, 20 August) the Security Council is set to adopt the introduction to its annual report to the General Assembly covering 1 January-31 December 2018. Its drafter, the UK, is expected to present the introduction to the members. The...
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Poland is president of the Security Council in August. The month got off to a busy start. Today, a discussion was held by members under “any other business” on recent missile launches by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),...
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Of the five articles in the UN Charter assigning functions to the Secretary-General, Article 99 is the most important in the context of international peace and security. It grants the Secretary-General the authority “to bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security”. In this way, Article 99 allows the Secretary-General to initiate a Security Council discussion. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld underscored that “[it] is Article 99 more than any other which was considered by the drafters of the Charter to have transformed the Secretary-General from a purely administrative official to one with an explicit political responsibility”. The drafters of the Charter were fully aware of the weight of vesting this task in the Secretary-General: as the report of the UN Preparatory Commission points out, “the responsibility it confers upon the Secretary-General will require the exercise of the highest qualities of political judgment, tact and integrity”.
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Peru is the president of the Security Council in July. As one of its priorities for the month, Peru is organising a briefing under the agenda item “Peacebuilding and sustaining peace” focused on strengthening partnerships for nationally-owned transitions. Peru’s Foreign Minister Néstor...
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In June, the General Assembly elected five new members to serve two-year terms on the Security Council. This event highlights the interactions between these political organs of the UN system, which also include the election of the UN Secretary-General by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Council, and the simultaneous voting of both organs for members of the International Court of Justice, among other forms of engagement. It seems useful, in the wake of the elections to the Council, to consider how the relationship between the Council and the General Assembly can be strengthened.
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Mr. President, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, It’s a pleasure to address the Council on behalf of Security Council Report. SCR acknowledges the dedicated work of Kuwait, now in its second year under Ambassador al-Otaibi as the Chair of...
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Tomorrow (6 June) the Security Council will hold an open debate on its working methods. The meeting is being held under the agenda item “Implementation of the note by the President of the Security Council (S/2017/507)”, referring to the most...
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Kuwait is president of the Security Council in June. As a signature event of its presidency, Kuwait plans to hold an open debate on the working methods of the Security Council. Karin Landgren, the Executive Director of Security Council Report,...
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The 73rd session of the UN General Assembly is expected to hold elections on 7 June for five non-permanent members of the Security Council for the term 2020-2021. (For more detailed information, please see our 14 May research report Security Council Elections 2019.)
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During its presidency in June, Kuwait plans to hold an open debate on working methods of the Security Council. The debate—with briefings by James Cockayne of UN University and Karin Landgren, the Executive Director of Security Council Report—will be the second such meeting organised by Kuwait, who, as chair of the Informal Working Group on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions, made working methods one of the priorities for its 2018-2019 Council term. There is likely to be a chair’s summary issued after the meeting.
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The Security Council will hold its annual retreat with the Secretary-General starting this evening (2 May) and continuing throughout the day tomorrow (3 May) at the Greentree Estate on Long Island. The Secretary-General and senior UN Secretariat staff will meet...
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Indonesia holds the Security Council presidency in May. It is planning to convene two open debates during the month: one on peacekeeping operations and a second on the protection of civilians in armed conflict. The debate on peacekeeping is expected...
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The “Arria-formula” is the most flexible meeting format the Security Council has at its disposal. It has been used every year since March 1992, when Ambassador Diego Arria of Venezuela wanted fellow Council members to hear an eyewitness account of atrocities occurring in the former Yugoslavia. Unable to find a formal way to hold such a meeting, Arria invited Council members to meet with the witness in the UN delegates’ lounge. This was deemed useful; several similarly informal briefings were soon held, and the term “Arria-formula meetings” was born.
