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Reforming the Security Council: The International Negotiation Process Within the Context of Calls to Amend the UN Charter to the New Realities of the Post-Cold War Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2009

Erkki Kourula  and
Tapio Kanninen
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Extract

The expansion of the Security Council's membership is presently being seriously debated by the international community. The UN Charter is most likely to be amended if agreement is reached in negotiations now underway.At the same time, a number of other possible fundamental reforms, also requiring Charter amendments, are being discussed in various UN fora. The question arises whether the Charter could or should be amended only once during our generation or many times over a period of a few years.

Keywords

amendmentSecurity CouncilUnited Nations.
Type
Current Legal Developments
Information
Leiden Journal of International Law , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1995 , pp. 337 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 1995

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References

1. See UN Doc. A/34/246 (1979).

2. Id.

3. See UN Doc. A/48/264 (1994).

4. See UN Doc. A/48/26 (1993).

5. See UN Doc. A/48/47 (1994).

6. See UN Doc. A/48/498 (1993).

7. See UN Doc. A/49/47 (1995).

8. The observations and assesmencs of the two Vice-Chairmen, prepared in their personal capacity, on the progress of the work of the Working Group during the 49th session are contained in UN Doc. A/49/965 (1995).

9. Memberships of ECOSOC (Article 61) and the Security Council (Article 23), with a corresponding amendment to Article 27 to require nine affirmative votes for the adoption of a Security Council decision, were increased in 1963 (entered into force in 1965). When Articles 23 and 27 were amended in 1963, the requirement of seven votes in Article 109 was not changed.Article 109 was, however, amended in 1965 (entered into force in 1968) to conform to the new requirement in Article 27. The ECOSOC membership was increased again in 1971 (entered into force in 1973).

10. See UN Doc. A/50/33 (1995).

11. See UN Docs. S/1994/1234 and S/RES/956 (1994).

12. Our Global Neighbourhood, The Report of the Commission on Global Governance (1995).

13. The United Nations in its Second Half-Century, The Report of the Independent Working Group on the Future of the United Nations (1995).

14. There are at least the following five Working Groups established by the General Assembly to deal with various proposed reforms of the UN organs and functions: the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on An Agenda for Development; the High-level Open-ended Working Group on the Financial Situation of the UN; the Open-ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council; the Informal Open-ended Working Group on An Agenda for Peace; and the Consultations on Prospective New Modalities for Financing Operational Activities for Development. In the summer of 1995, it was agreed, in principle, to establish a sixth Working Group, the Openended High-level Working Group on the Strengthening of the UN System, which is likely to start its work in the autumn of 1995.