
and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security
. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter
, include the establishment of peacekeeping
operations, the establishment of international sanctions
, and the authorization of military action
. Its powers are exercised through United Nations Security Council resolution
s.
The Security Council held its first session on 17 January 1946 at Church House, Westminster, London
.
1960 Belgium defends its intervention in the Congo to the United Nations Security Council while the government of the Congo appeals to the Soviet Union to send troops to push back the Belgians. The governments of the United States and France and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization warn the Soviets to stay out of the dispute.
1971 Representatives of the People's Republic of China attend the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council, for the first time.
1971 The United Nations Security Council calls an emergency session to consider the deteriorating situation between India and Pakistan.
1980 The United Nations Security Council votes 14-0 that member states should not recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
1990 Gulf War: the United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
1990 Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing "use all necessary means to uphold and implement" United Nations Security Council Resolution 660 "to restore international peace and security" if Iraq did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.
1991 The United Nations Security Council adopts Security Council Resolution 721, leading the way to the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia.
2009 North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket. The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of Six-party talks.
and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security
. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter
, include the establishment of peacekeeping
operations, the establishment of international sanctions
, and the authorization of military action
. Its powers are exercised through United Nations Security Council resolution
s.
The Security Council held its first session on 17 January 1946 at Church House, Westminster, London
. Since its first meeting, the Council, which exists in continuous session, has travelled widely, holding meetings in many cities, such as Paris
and Addis Ababa
, as well as at its current permanent home at the United Nations Headquarters
in New York City
.
There are 15 members of the Security Council, consisting of five veto-wielding permanent members (China
, France
, Russia
, the United Kingdom
, and the United States
) and 10 elected non-permanent members with two-year terms. This basic structure is set out in Chapter V of the UN Charter. Security Council members must always be present at UN headquarters in New York so that the Security Council can meet at any time. This requirement of the United Nations Charter
was adopted to address a weakness of the League of Nations
since that organization was often unable to respond quickly to a crisis.
Permanent members
The Security Council's five permanent members have the power to vetoany substantive resolution:
Country | Membership notes | Current Permanent Representative |
---|---|---|
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: 1946-1971; : 1971–present | Li Baodong Li Baodong Li Baodong is a Chinese diplomat and has been the Permanent Representative of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations since 2010.-Biography:... |
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Provisional Government of the French Republic Provisional Government of the French Republic The Provisional Government of the French Republic was an interim government which governed France from 1944 to 1946, following the fall of Vichy France and prior to the Fourth French Republic.... : 1946; French Fourth Republic French Fourth Republic The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which was in place before World War II, and suffered many of the same problems... : 1946-1958; French Fifth Republic French Fifth Republic The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system... : 1958–present. |
Gérard Araud Gerard Araud Gérard Araud is the Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations. Before that he was Director General for Political and Security Affairs of the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, also known as Quai d’Orsay.... |
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: 1946–1991; ![]() |
Vitaly Churkin |
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None | Sir Mark Lyall Grant |
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None | Susan Rice |
The five permanent members of the Security Council consisted of France
, the Republic of China
, the United Kingdom
, the United States
, and the USSR, at the UN's founding in 1946. With the exception of the People's Republic of China
(which replaced the Republic of China
in 1971), and Russia
(which superseded the Soviet Union
seat in 1991), the current P5 membership are represented by the main victorious powers of World War II
.
There have been two seat changes since then, although not reflected in Article 23 of the United Nations Charter
as it has not been accordingly amended:
- China's seat was originally filled by the Republic of ChinaRepublic of ChinaThe Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
, but due to the stalemate of the Chinese Civil WarChinese Civil WarThe Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...
in 1949, there have been two statesSovereign stateA sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
claiming to represent China since then, and both officially claim each other's territory. In 1971, the People's Republic of China was awarded China's seat in the United NationsChina and the United NationsChina's seat in the United Nations and membership of the United Nations Security Council was originally occupied by the Republic of China since October 24, 1945. During the Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party of China repelled the government of the ROC from Mainland China to the island of...
by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758UN General Assembly Resolution 2758United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 25 October 1971 recognized the representatives of the People's Republic of China as "the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations" and expelled "the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek from the place which they unlawfully...
, and the Republic of China (based in TaiwanTaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
) soon lost membership in all UN organizations. - Russia, being the legal successor stateSuccession of statesSuccession of states is a theory and practice in international relations regarding the recognition and acceptance of a newly created sovereign state by other states, based on a perceived historical relationship the new state has with a prior state...
to the Soviet UnionSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
after the latter's collapse in 1991, acquired the originally-Soviet seatSoviet Union and the United NationsThe Soviet Union took an active role in the United Nations and other major international and regional organizations. At the behest of the United States, the Soviet Union took a role in the establishment of the UN in 1945...
, including the Soviet Union's former representation in the Security Council.
The five permanent members of the Security Council are also the only countries recognized as nuclear-weapon states (NWS) under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
. However, membership of the UN Security Council is not dependent on nuclear weapons status.
Non-permanent members
Ten other members are elected by the General Assemblyfor two-year terms starting on 1 January, with five replaced each year. The members are chosen by regional groups and confirmed by the United Nations General Assembly
. To be approved, a candidate must be receive at least 2/3 of all votes cast for that seat, which can result in deadlock if there are two roughly evenly matched candidates; in 1979, a standoff between Cuba
and Colombia
only ended after three months and 154 rounds of voting, when both withdrew in favor of Mexico
as a compromise candidate.
The African bloc is represented by three members; the Latin America and the Caribbean, Asian, and Western European and Others
blocs by two members each; and the Eastern Europe
an bloc by one member. Also, one of the members is an "Arab
country," alternately from the Asian or African bloc. Currently, elections for terms beginning in even-numbered years select two African members, and one each within Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Additionally, the Arab state is represented in this group (Libya within Africa in 2008, Lebanon within Asia in 2010). Terms beginning in odd-numbered years consist of two Western European and Other members, and one within each of Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa.
The current elected members, with the regions they were elected to represent and their Permanent Representatives, are:
Country | Regional bloc(s) | Permanent Representative |
---|---|---|
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Eastern Europe | Ivan Barbalić Ivan Barbalić Ivan Barbalić is a Bosnian and Herzegovinian diplomat serving as a Permanent Representative to the United Nations accredited as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Chief of the Permanent Mission of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Office of the United Nations... |
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Latin America and Caribbean | Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti is the Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations, as of 25 July 2007. Viotti was the President of the United Nations Security Council for the month of February 2011... |
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Africa | Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet Franck Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet is a Gabonese diplomat and political figure. He was Gabon's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from August 2008 to January 2009... |
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Asia and Arab group | Nawaf Salam Nawaf Salam Nawaf Salam is a Lebanese diplomat, academic, and jurist. He is currently serving as Lebanon's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.-Background and education:... |
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Africa | Joy Ogwu Joy Ogwu Joy Uche Angela Ogwu is a former Foreign Minister of Nigeria and has been the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations in New York since 2008. She was the second woman to hold the post in the history of Nigeria. Prior to her ministerial career, Dr... |
Country | Regional bloc(s) | Permanent Representative |
---|---|---|
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Latin America and Caribbean | Néstor Osorio Londoño Néstor Osorio Londoño Néstor Osorio Londoño is the 27th Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations. An administrative lawyer, he has also served as 1st Permanent Representative of Colombia to the World Trade Organization in Geneva from 1995 to 1999, and as 4th Executive Director of the International... |
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Western Europe and Other | Peter Wittig Peter Wittig Peter Wittig is a German diplomat and has been Germany's Permanent Representative to the United Nations since December 2009.... |
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Asia | Hardeep Singh Puri Hardeep Singh Puri Hardeep Singh Puri is a 1973 batch Indian Foreign Service officer who is the current Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations. He is also presently the chairman of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee... |
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Western Europe and Other | José Filipe Moraes Cabral José Filipe Moraes Cabral José Filipe Moraes Cabral is a Portuguese diplomat. He has been the Permanent Representative of Portugal to the United Nations in New York since 2008.... |
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Africa | Baso Sangqu Baso Sangqu Baso Sangqu is the South African permanent representative to the United Nations. He was appointed on 17 March 2009, having served as deputy previously... |
Elections held on October 21–24, 2011, saw Morocco
, Togo
, Guatemala
, Pakistan
and Azerbaijan
selected as non-permanent members for a two-year term beginning January 1, 2012.
Status of non-members
A state that is a member of the UN, but not of the Security Council, may participate in Security Council discussions in matters by which the Council agrees that the country's interests are particularly affected. In recent years, the Council has interpreted this loosely, allowing many countries to take part in its discussions. Non-members are routinely invited to take part when they are parties to disputes being considered.President
The role of president of the Security Councilinvolves setting the agenda, presiding at its meetings and overseeing any crisis. The President is authorized to issue both presidential statements
(subject to consensus among Council members) and notes, which are used to make declarations of intent that the full Security Council can then pursue. The Presidency rotates monthly in alphabetical order of the Security Council member nations' names in English.
Veto power

, also known as the rule of "great power
unanimity", by a permanent member prevents adoption of a proposal, even if it has received the required number of affirmative votes (9). Abstention is not regarded as a veto despite the wording of the Charter. Since the Security Council's inception, China (ROC/PRC) has used its veto 6 times; France 18 times; Russia/USSR 123 times; the United Kingdom 32 times; and the United States 82 times. The majority of Russian/Soviet vetoes were in the first ten years of the Council's existence. Since 1984, China and France have vetoed three resolutions each; Russia/USSR four; the United Kingdom ten; and the United States 43.
Procedural matters are not subject to a veto, so the veto cannot be used to avoid discussion of an issue. The same holds for certain decisions that directly regard permanent members.
Role
Under Chapter Sixof the Charter
, "Pacific Settlement of Disputes", the Security Council "may investigate any dispute, or any situation which might lead to international friction or give rise to a dispute". The Council may "recommend appropriate procedures or methods of adjustment" if it determines that the situation might endanger international peace and security. These recommendations are not binding on UN members.
Under Chapter Seven
, the Council has broader power to decide what measures are to be taken in situations involving "threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, or acts of aggression". In such situations, the Council is not limited to recommendations but may take action, including the use of armed force "to maintain or restore international peace and security". This was the legal basis for UN armed action in Korea in 1950 during the Korean War
and the use of coalition forces in Iraq and Kuwait
in 1991 and Libya
in 2011. Decisions taken under Chapter Seven, such as economic sanctions
, are binding on UN members.

- Investigate any situation threatening international peace;
- Recommend procedures for peaceful resolution of a dispute;
- Call upon other member nations to completely or partially interrupt economic relations as well as sea, air, postal, and radio communications, or to sever diplomatic relations;
- Enforce its decisions militarily, or by any means necessary;
- Avoid conflict and maintain focus on cooperation.
They also recommend the new Secretary-General to the General Assembly.
The Rome Statute
of the International Criminal Court
recognizes that the Security Council has authority
to refer cases to the Court, where the Court could not otherwise exercise jurisdiction. The Council exercised this power for the first time in March 2005, when it referred to the Court “the situation prevailing in Darfur
since 1 July 2002”; since Sudan
is not a party to the Rome Statute, the Court could not otherwise have exercised jurisdiction. The Security Council made its second such referral in February 2011 when it asked the ICC to investigate the Libya
n government's violent response to the 2011 uprising.
Responsibility to protect
Security Council Resolution 1674, adopted on 28 April 2006, "reaffirms the provisions of paragraphs 138 and 139 of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document regarding the responsibility to protect
populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity". The resolution
commits the Council to action to protect civilians in armed conflict. The Security Council's role in implementing the responsibility to protect is not limited to taking collective action against mass atrocities (pillar three of the responsibility to protect), but it can also make important contributions to structural and operational prevention of genocide, war, crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity (pillar two of the responsibility to protect).http://www.ipinst.org/media/pdf/publications/favorita_paper_2010.pdf
Resolutions
The UN Charter is a multilateral treaty. It is the constitutional document that distributes powers and functions among the various UN organs. It authorizes the Security Council to take action on behalf of the members, and to make decisions and recommendations. The Charter mentions neither binding nor non-binding resolutions. The International Court of Justice(ICJ) advisory opinion in the 1949 "Reparations" case indicated that the United Nations Organization had both explicit and implied powers. The Court cited Articles 104 and 2(5) of the Charter, and noted that the members had granted the Organization the necessary legal authority to exercise its functions and fulfill its purposes as specified or implied in the Charter, and that they had agreed to give the United Nations every assistance in any action taken in accordance with the Charter.
Article 25 of the Charter says that "The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter". The Repertory of Practice of United Nations Organs, is a UN legal publication that is published by the Secretariat units concerned in accordance with their operational responsibilities and under the guidance of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Charter Repertory. It says that during the United Nations Conference on International Organization which met in San Francisco in 1945, attempts to limit obligations of Members under Article 25 of the Charter to those decisions taken by the Council in the exercise of its specific powers under Chapters VI, VII and VIII of the Charter failed. It was stated at the time that those obligations also flowed from the authority conferred on the Council under Article 24(1) to act on the behalf of the members while exercising its responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Article 24, interpreted in this sense, becomes a source of authority which can be drawn upon to meet situations which are not covered by the more detailed provisions in the succeeding articles. The Repertory on Article 24 says: "The question whether Article 24 confers general powers on the Security Council ceased to be a subject of discussion following the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice rendered on 21 June 1971 in connection with the question of Namibia (ICJ Reports, 1971, page 16)".
In exercising its powers the Security Council seldom bothers to cite the particular article or articles of the UN Charter that its decisions are based upon. In cases where none are mentioned, a constitutional interpretation is required. This sometimes presents ambiguities as to what amounts to a decision as opposed to a recommendation, and also the relevance and interpretation of the phrase "in accordance with the present Charter".
In the preliminary rulings of the "Lockerbie" cases the ICJ held that the provisions of the Montreal Convention could be preempted by Security Council resolutions pursuant to Article 25 and Article 103 of the UN Charter. Article 103 provides that in the event of conflicts with other treaty obligations, the members obligations under the Charter prevail. There is consensus that the treaty-based powers of the Security Council are limited to preemption of other treaties. The UN cannot circumvent peremptory norms and its resolutions are subject to judicial review.
Security Council Resolutions
are legally binding if they are made under Chapter VII
(Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression) of the Charter.
There is a general agreement among legal scholars outside the organization that resolutions made under Chapter VI (Pacific Settlement of Disputes) are not legally binding. One argument is that since they have no enforcement mechanism, except self-help, they may not be legally binding. Some States give constitutional or special legal status to the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions. In such cases non-recognition regimes or other sanctions can be implemented under the provisions of the laws of the individual member states.
The Repertory of Practice of United Nations Organs was established because "Records of the cumulating practice of international organizations may be regarded as evidence of customary international law with reference to States' relations to the organizations." The repertory cites the remarks made by the representative of Israel, Mr Eban, regarding a Chapter VI resolution. He maintained that the Security Council's resolution of 1 September 1951 possessed, within the meaning of Article 25, a compelling force beyond that pertaining to any resolution of any other organ of the United Nations, in his view the importance of the resolution had to be envisaged in the light of Article 25, under which the decisions of the Council on matters affecting international peace and security assumed an obligatory character for all Member States. The Egyptian representative disagreed.
Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali related that during a press conference his remarks about a "non-binding" resolution started a dispute. His assistant released a hasty clarification which only made the situation worse. It said that the Secretary had only meant to say that Chapter VI contains no means of insuring compliance and that resolutions adopted under its terms are not enforceable. When the Secretary finally submitted the question to the UN Legal Advisor, the response was a long memo the bottom line of which read, in capital letters: "NO SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION CAN BE DESCRIBED AS UNENFORCEABLE." The Secretary said "I got the message."
Prof. Jared Schott explains that "Though certainly possessing judicial language, without the legally binding force of Chapter VII, such declarations were at worst political and at best advisory".
In 1971, a majority of the International Court of Justice
(ICJ) members in the Namibia advisory opinion
held that the resolution contained legal declarations that were made while the Council was acting on behalf of the members in accordance with Article 24. The Court also said that an interpretation of the charter that limits the domain of binding decision only to those taken under Chapter VII would render Article 25 "superfluous, since this [binding] effect is secured by Articles 48 and 49 of the Charter", and that the "language of a resolution of the Security Council should be carefully analysed before a conclusion can be made as to its binding effect". The ICJ judgment has been criticized by Erika De Wet and others. De Wet argues that Chapter VI resolutions cannot be binding. Her reasoning, in part states:
Allowing the Security Council to adopt binding measures under Chapter VI would undermine the structural division of competencies foreseen by Chapters VI and VII, respectively. The whole aim of separating these chapters is to distinguish between voluntary and binding measures. Whereas the pacific settlement of disputes provided by the former is underpinned by the consent of the parties, binding measures in terms of Chapter VII are characterized by the absence of such consent. A further indication of the non-binding nature of measures taken in terms of Chapter VI is the obligation on members of the Security Council who are parties to a dispute, to refrain from voting when resolutions under Chapter VI are adopted. No similar obligation exists with respect to binding resolutions adopted under Chapter VII... If one applies this reasoning to the Namibia opinion, the decisive point is that none of the Articles under Chapter VI facilitate the adoption of the type of binding measures that were adopted by the Security Council in Resolution 276(1970)... Resolution 260(1970) was indeed adopted in terms of Chapter VII, even though the ICJ went to some length to give the opposite impression.
Others disagree with this interpretation. Professor Stephen Zunes
asserts that "[t]his does not mean that resolutions under Chapter VI are merely advisory, however. These are still directives by the Security Council and differ only in that they do not have the same stringent enforcement options, such as the use of military force". Former President of the International Court of Justice Rosalyn Higgins
argues that the location of Article 25, outside of Chapter VI and VII and with no reference to either, suggests its application is not limited to Chapter VII decisions. She asserts that the Travaux préparatoires
to the UN Charter "provide some evidence that Article 25 was not intended to be limited to Chapter VII, or inapplicable to Chapter VI." She argues that early state practice into what resolutions UN members considered binding has been somewhat ambiguous, but seems to "rely not upon whether they are to be regarded as "Chapter VI or "Chapter VII" resolutions [...] but upon whether the parties intended them to be "decisions" or "recommendations" ... One is left with the view that in certain limited, and perhaps rare, cases a binding decision may be taken under Chapter VI". She supports the view of the ICJ that "clearly regarded Chapters VI, VII, VIII and XII as lex specialis while Article 24 contained the lex generalis ... [and] that resolutions validly adopted under Article 24 were binding on the membership as a whole".
Those resolutions made dealing with the internal governance of the organization (such as the admission of new Member States) are legally binding where the Charter gives the Security Council power to make them.
If the council cannot reach consensus or a passing vote on a resolution, they may choose to produce a non-binding presidential statement
instead of a Resolution. These are adopted by consensus. They are meant to apply political pressure — a warning that the council is paying attention and further action may follow.
Press statements typically accompany both resolutions and presidential statements, carrying the text of the document adopted by the body and also some explanatory text. They may also be released independently, after a significant meeting.
Criticism
It has been argued that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, who are all nuclear powers, have created an exclusive nuclear club that predominately addresses the strategic interests and political motives of the permanent members; for example, protecting the oil-rich Kuwaitis in 1991 but poorly protecting resource-poor Rwanda
ns in 1994.
Another criticism of the Security Council involves the veto
power of the five permanent nations. The veto power was adopted at the insistence of the Soviet Union after World War II. According to the by-rules of the U.N., a "no" vote by any one permament Security Council member is enough to strike down any given proposal. The "no" vote is the same as a veto. As would be expected, permament members often use this veto power to strike down measures that run contrary to their individual national interests. For example, the People's Republic of China
, which, in 1971, replaced the Republic of China
as a permanent Security Council member, has vetoed sparingly, but always and only on issues relating to Chinese national interests. In another example, in the first ten years of the U.N.'s existence, Russia was responsible for 79 vetoes—more than half of all the vetoes cast during that period—and cast them to dispute the U.S.'s refusal to admit all of the Soviet Republics as member states of the U.N. In another example of the use of the veto power to advance national interests, between 1982 and today, the U.S. vetoed 32 Security Council resolutions that were critical of Israel
, a U.S. ally in the Middle East. Due to the immense power of the veto, permanent members often now meet privately and then present their resolutions to the full council, which some critics characterise as a fait accompli.
The Security Council's effectiveness and relevance is questionable because, in most high-profile cases, there are essentially no consequences for violating a Security Council resolution. During the Darfur crisis, Janjaweed
militias, allowed by elements of the Sudan
ese government, committed violence against an indigenous population, killing thousands of civilians. In the Srebrenica massacre
, Serbian troops committed genocide against Bosniaks
, although Srebrenica
had been declared a UN "safe area" and was even "protected" by 400 armed Dutch peacekeepers.
The UN is also undemocratic, by representing the interests of the governments of the nations who formed it and not necessarily the individuals within those nations. The UN Charter gives all three powers of the legislative, executive
, and judiciary
branches to the Security Council.
Another criticism is that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council are five of the top ten largest arms exporting countries in the world.
The amount of time devoted to the Israeli-Arab conflict in the UNSC has been described as excessive by some pro-Israel political organizations such as the United Nations Watch and the Anti-Defamation League
;, and academics such as Alan Dershowitz
, Martin Kramer
, and Mitchell Bard
. This “excessiveness" is partially due to the existence of UN Security Council Resolution number 1322 (2000) of 7 October 2000 that serves the legal basis for a monthly discussion on this protracted conflict. Paragraph 7 stated that “invites the Secretary-General to continue to follow the situation and to keep the Security Council informed.” In accordance with its general practices, it is considered that this issue has to be dealt on a regular basis (i.e. every month). The resolution was adopted with 14 affirmative votes and one abstention.
Membership reform

, Germany
, India
, and Japan
. Japan and Germany are the UN's second and third largest funders respectively, while Brazil and India are two of the largest contributors of troops to UN-mandated peace-keeping missions. This proposal has found opposition in a group of countries called Uniting for Consensus.
Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
asked a team of advisers to come up with recommendations for reforming the United Nations by the end of 2004. One proposed measure is to increase the number of permanent members by five, which, in most proposals, would include Brazil, Germany, India, Japan (known as the G4 nations
), one seat from Africa (most likely between Egypt
, Nigeria
or South Africa
) and/or one seat from the Arab League
. On 21 September 2004, the G4 nations issued a joint statement mutually backing each other's claim to permanent status, together with two African countries. Currently the proposal has to be accepted by two-thirds of the General Assembly (128 votes).
The permanent members, each holding the right of veto, announced their positions on Security Council reform reluctantly. The United States has unequivocally supported the permanent membership of Japan and lent its support to India and a small number of additional non-permanent members. The United Kingdom and France essentially supported the G4 position, with the expansion of permanent and non-permanent members and the accession of Germany, Brazil, India and Japan to permanent member status, as well as an increase in the presence by African countries on the Council. China has supported the stronger representation of developing countries and firmly opposed Japan's membership.
Chamber
The designated Security Council Chamber in the United Nations Conference Building, designed by the Norwegian architect Arnstein Arneberg
, was the specific gift of Norway. The mural painted by the Norwegian artist Per Krohg
depicts a phoenix
rising from its ashes, symbolic of the world reborn after World War II. In the blue and gold silk tapestry on the walls and in the draperies of the windows overlooking the East River appear the anchor of faith, the wheat stems of hope, and the heart of charity.
See also
- BRICSBRICSBRICS is an international political organisation of leading emerging economies, arising out of the inclusion of South Africa into the BRIC group in 2010. As of 2011, its five members are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa...
+ BASIC countriesBASIC countriesThe BASIC countries are a bloc of four large developing countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – formed by an agreement on 28 November 2009... - Military Staff CommitteeMilitary Staff CommitteeThe Military Staff Committee is the United Nations Security Council subsidiary body whose role, as defined by the United Nations Charter, is to plan UN military operations and assist in the regulation of armaments....
, a sub-organ of the Security Council - Reform of the United NationsReform of the United NationsSince the late 1990s there have been many calls for reform of the United Nations . However, there is little clarity or consensus about what reform might mean in practice. Both those who want the UN to play a greater role in world affairs and those who want its role confined to humanitarian work or...
- United Nations Department of Political AffairsUnited Nations Department of Political AffairsThe United Nations Department of Political Affairs is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nations with responsibility for monitoring and assessing global political developments and advising and assisting the United Nations Secretary General and his envoys in the peaceful prevention and...
, provides secretarial support to the Security Council - United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism CommitteeUnited Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism CommitteeThe Counter-Terrorism Committee is a subsidiary body of the United Nations Security Council.In the wake of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1373, which, among its provisions, obliges all States to...
, a standing committee of the Security Council
Further reading
http://www.ipinst.org/publication/policy-papers/detail/298-the-united-nations-security-council-and-civil-war-first-insights-from-a-new-dataset.html ISBN 978-0-19-953343-5 (hardback); ISBN 978-0-19-958330-0 (paperback). US edition. On Google.External links
- UN Security Council — official site
- Global Policy Forum – UN Security Council
- Security Council Report — timely, accurate and objective information and analysis on the Council's activities
- Center for UN Reform Education – objective information on current reform issues at the United Nations
- Verbatim record of the 1st session of the Security Council
- UN Democracy: hyperlinked transcripts of the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council
- Hans KöchlerHans KöchlerHans Köchler is a professor of philosophy at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and president of the International Progress Organization, a non-governmental organization in consultative status with the United Nations...
, - Reform the United Nations website — tracking developments
- History of the United Nations — UK Government site
- Who will be the next Secretary General? The different projects of reform (G4, Africa Union, United for consensus) (2006)
- UNSC cyberschool