Mr. President,
We thank you for organizing this open debate on the working methods of the Security Council.
2. There is wide agreement within the world community that, to be able to respond effectively to the increasingly complex and overlapping challenges to global peace and security, the Security Council must become more transparent, accountable, inclusive and democratic. We hope that consensus will be reached in the near future through the General Assembly’s IGN process on a comprehensive reform of the Security Council. Meanwhile, it is also essential for the Council to improve its working methods.
3. Presidential Note S/2017/507 of August 2017 addresses the Council‘s practices in a holistic manner. The recommendations contained in this agreed Note should be consistently and diligently implemented. Such a system of inner checks and balances can help to ensure that the Council acts more responsibly and its members take decisions based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, rather than on their own narrow national interests.
Mr. President,
4. Contrary to these arrangements, the Council’s Working Methods and practice in recent years have evolved in a direction that does not meet the expectations of the international community and the general UN membership.
5. Despite recent efforts to improve transparency in the functioning of the Council, much of its “real work” increasingly takes place behind closed doors in so called “informal” meetings, which have no records and thus do not assign responsibility or explanation for most of the decisions that are taken- or not taken- by the Security Council.
6. This was always not so. During the early decades after the creation of the United Nations, the Council meetings were held in the open; they were convened urgently at the request of a member state or visible threats to peace and security; and, they were open to active participation by States not members of the Council, who could intervene freely on issue of concern to them. This open culture of the Council’s work was progressively eroded by the ever more frequent “closed’ meetings, especially after the end of the Cold War.
7. In our view, enhanced engagement of the Council with the wider UN membership is critical. We all have an equal stake in the maintenance of international peace and security. The number and proportion of open meetings of the Council must therefore be increased and closed meetings restricted to a minimum.
8. Similarly, meaningful participation of states with a legitimate stake in the Council's deliberations should be ensured throughout the decision-making process.
9. It is no secret that there is widespread disaffection with what is seen as an exclusivist and elitist culture of the Council – with outcomes mostly determined by its permanent members. There is also frustration with the use of the veto, which is exercised in the Council not only through negative votes of permanent members but also through the Council’s informal and often UN acknowledged processes. It is this reality which reinforces the belief of Pakistan and the Uniting for Consensus Group, that the reform and effectiveness of the Security Council cannot be achieved by seating additional permanent members on the Council but by enhancing its representation, openness and inclusive decision-making through the expansion and empowerment of additional “elected” non-permanent members.
Mr. President,
10. The Security Council’s relationship with the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council should also be brought into conformity with the letter and spirit of the UN Charter.
11. The improved timeline in the submission of the Security Council’s reports to the General Assembly is encouraging, but the same cannot be said about the contents of the report itself. The report provides a compendium of the Council’s deliberations on the various issues, which is a useful reference, but it does not throw any light on how the Council considered specific situations and the ways by which it reached its decisions. The fundamental obligation of the Council, reflected in articles 15 and 24 of the Charter, should not be allowed to become a mere ritual.
12. There is even greater disregard of the Security Council’s Charter relationship with the Economic and Social Council. Article 65 of the Charter provides that the Economic and Social Council “may furnish information to the Security Council and shall assist the Security Council upon its request”. But rarely has the ECOSOC been requested to play this role nor has any serious effort been made -apart from creating the peace building commission- to evolve a practice of inviting ECOSOC to work with the Security Council in areas and on issues where their mandates overlap.
Mr. President,
13. It is also increasingly evident that fundamental changes are needed in the global counter terrorism architecture and the UN Security Council’s sanctions regimes.
14. We support the continuation of reform in procedures of the Security Council CT Committees to ensure due process and effective remedy in the implementation of sanctions regimes.
15. We also acknowledge the contribution of the Office of the Ombudsperson to the Da'esh and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee, towards enhancing the transparency in the UNSC sanctions. We urge a further strengthening of the office.
16. Likewise, a number of opaque and non-inclusive processes, lacking global membership, have increasingly become associated and at times integrated within the counter-terrorism architecture, with their non- inclusive decisions becoming integrated into Chapter VII resolutions of the Security Council. This, non Representative soft law” standards and practices are transformed into arbitrary obligations imposed on all States through the Security Council. This hegemonistic practice must be halted and reversed. The development of International law must be an inclusive, agreed and consensual process.
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Mr. President,
17. Finally, nothing undermines the credibility of the Council more than 'selective' implementation -and non implementation- of its resolutions. The Council should seriously consider how it can improve the implementation of its resolutions, especially on longstanding issues such as the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and the Question of Palestine. Failure to enforce its own resolutions undermines the credibility of the Security Council and erodes the commitment of States and peoples to the principles of the UN Charter and the pacific settlement of disputes.
I thank you.
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