{"id":263968,"date":"2023-10-12T19:12:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T13:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=263968"},"modified":"2023-10-12T20:26:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T14:56:48","slug":"un-security-council-reform-is-a-song-in-a-loop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/un-security-council-reform-is-a-song-in-a-loop\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Security Council reform is a song in a loop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: <\/strong>This post has been created based on the article \u201cUN Security Council reform is a song in a loop\u201d<\/strong> published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 12th<\/sup> October 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 International Relations \u2014 Important International institutions, agencies and fora – their structure, mandate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

News<\/strong>:\u00a0This article discusses the structural issues of equity and representation in the UN Security Council, <\/strong>and the various challenges associated with reforming the organisation.<\/p>\n

The issue of fundamental reforms of the UNSC has resurfaced at the ongoing General Assembly session.<\/p>\n

UN\u2019s Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres mentioned that the world has changed, but not the institutions. This prevents the effective addressing of problems.<\/p>\n

What are the issues of equity in representation at the UNSC? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

1) Do not represent Present realities: <\/strong>5 permanent members enjoy the privilege of a veto, merely because \u00a0of winning a war 76 years ago. The UNSC reflects the geopolitical realities of 1945 and not of today.<\/p>\n

2) Disproportionate under-representation of countries:<\/strong> Out of 193 member-states of the UN, only 15 members (less than 8%)<\/strong> are represented in the UNSC. Europe<\/strong>, which accounts for only 5% of the world\u2019s population, controls 33% of the seats.<\/p>\n

3) Funders not represented: Japan and Germany<\/strong> have been the 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> largest contributors to the UN budget but are still referred to as \u2018enemy states\u2019 in the UN Charter.<\/p>\n

4) Major players not represented: <\/strong>States such as India<\/strong>, despite its huge population, share of the world economy, or contributions in kind to the UN (through participation in peacekeeping operations, for example), are not represented.<\/p>\n

What are the various challenges in reforming the UNSC?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1) Lack of support from small countries<\/strong>: These make up more than half the UN\u2019s membership but have been indifferent to reform due to lack of incentive.<\/p>\n

2) Lack of support from medium and large countries: <\/strong>They are against the select few trying to become permanent members due to a spirit of competition, historical grievance or simple envy.<\/p>\n

3) Difficult procedure: <\/strong>The procedure to amend the UN Charter is very difficult. Any amendment requires a two-third majority, and further has to be ratified by two-thirds of the member states.<\/p>\n

4) Power of veto: <\/strong>Any ratification also has to be supported by all of the existing permanent five members.<\/p>\n

5) In the case of India<\/strong>: China won\u2019t like diluting its status as the only Asian permanent member; Pakistan, is also opposed; and Indonesia seems to feel diminished by the prospect of an Indian seat.<\/p>\n

6) In the case of Brazil<\/strong>: Argentina and Mexico opposed due to Brazil not representing the largely Hispanic Latin America.<\/p>\n

7) In the case of Africa<\/strong>: Rivalry between Nigeria (largest democracy), South Africa (largest economy), and Egypt (oldest civilization).<\/p>\n

What shows the ineffectiveness of the UNSC?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Failure to prevent conflict:<\/strong> In the Ukraine conflict<\/strong>, a Permanent Member of the Security Council invaded a sovereign state and the Council proved powerless.<\/p>\n

Misuse of Veto Power: Russia\u2019s veto<\/strong> has blocked resolutions on Ukraine, Syria and North Korea. Similar obstructionism by the West<\/strong> has affected proposals to reform the World Bank and IMF.<\/p>\n

UNSC should not be allowed to fade into ineffectiveness and irrelevance as it is the only global system that brings all countries together on a common platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: This post has been created based on the article \u201cUN Security Council reform is a song in a loop\u201d published in The Hindu on 12th October 2023. UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 International Relations \u2014 Important International institutions, agencies and fora – their structure, mandate. News:\u00a0This article discusses the structural issues of equity… Continue reading UN Security Council reform is a song in a loop<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,239,10498],"class_list":["post-263968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-international-relations","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":20,"cached_at":1698385648,"cached_date":1698473448},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}