United Nations: India has said that a “marginal reform” of the Security Council was inadequate to make it fit to face the contemporary challenges, and a meaningful reform requires adding permanent members.
“The marginal reform in the 1960s that expanded only the non-permanent category has not changed the fundamental mode of functioning of the Security Council in any impactful manner”, India’s Permanent Representative P Harish told the General Assembly on Friday.
“Expansion of both permanent and non-permanent categories is central to implementing real and meaningful reform”, he said during the discussion of the Security Council Annual Report to the General Assembly.
The current structure of the Council reflects the realities of 1945, and it has hobbled its effective functioning, he said.
“We all recognise the importance of reform of the Security Council to make it fit-for-purpose to handle contemporary and future challenges we face”, he said.
The 1965 reform, which expanded the number of non-permanent members of the Council from 11 to 15, but not the permanent members, left the 1945 power structure of the UN’s highest decision-making body unchanged.
“Expansion of both permanent and non-permanent categories is central to implementing real and meaningful reform”, he said.
In 2026, the Council retains the structure devised in 1945 by the five main victors of World War II, who made themselves permanent members with veto powers.
Meanwhile, as colonialism crumbled around the world, the UN’s membership has nearly quadrupled from 51 in 1945 to 193 now, and the global power structure has also changed, with countries like India emerging as economic and geopolitical powers.
Africa, where most of the Council-mandated peacekeeping operations are located, has been shut out of the chamber.
The UN Charter mandates that the Council’s annual report to the General Assembly ensure transparency and a modicum of accountability.
Criticising the format of the report, Harish said it should be more analytical, highlighting the “areas of improvement and gaps, if any, with regard to discharging Council’s core mandate of maintenance of International Peace and Security”.
Although “peacekeeping is an important tool available at the disposal of the Security Council to fulfil its critical responsibilities”, the report’s template “largely excludes finer points pertaining to operational modalities, associated challenges, the review of respective mandates etc with regard to peacekeeping”, he said.
–IANS
