UNGA president exhorts members to rise above stalemate on Security Council reforms via talks

United Nations, Dec 14: UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis has appealed to members of the world body to overcome the perpetual stalemate on Security Council reform through good faith dialogue.
“While conflicts seem to be spreading the globe, the Security Council – whose primary responsibility is to maintain international peace and security – however, seems caught in a concerning state of paralysis”, he said on Wednesday at a roundtable of Global South think tanks on Council reform.
Therefore, the Council “is perceived as falling short of its mandate – consequently, compromising the credibility of the entire UN itself”, Francis said.
“We need a Council that is more balanced, more representative, more responsive, more democratic, and more transparent,” he emphasised.
For reforms to take place, member countries have “to overcome entrenched positions” through “genuine and good faith dialogue”, the UNGA chief added. “Our objective must be to find and/or create ways to move beyond a perpetual stalemate.”
The Council reform process has been in a state of stalemate for about two decades because of opposition from a small group of countries that use procedural gambits to block reform.
The roundtable was organised by L.69, a group of over 30 countries from around the world advocating for Security Council reform in cooperation with India’s UN Mission.
India’s Permanent Representative Ruchira Kamboj called the current structure of the Council an anachronism that is “failing to adapt to the seismic shifts in international relations over the past decades”.
The predominance of the countries of the Global North in the permanent membership of the Council, Kamboj said, is “a vestige of a colonial past”. It must change to “resonate with the current geopolitical dynamics”, she added. (IANS)