“YOU cannot have a body like the United Nations Security Council without some sort of democracy, and then want to indicate that there is democracy at the level of the UN.”

The foregoing quote is that of Foreign Minister, Ms Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, reaffirming Guyana’s commitment to the decade-long process of reforming the UN body.
The question of Security Council Reform at the 193-member international organisation has dragged on for nearly a decade. There has been some disagreement at that level on whether the reform would happen anytime soon, but Birkett reassured tyhe media that Guyana “will continue to work with like-minded countries to see that there is reform.”
“Guyana’s position is that both the permanent and non-permanent membership should be extended,” Birkett told reporters yesterday during the year-end review of her ministry. “This subject has been engaging the UN for a number of years [and] some people are very pessimistic.”
The Security Council was set up under the United Nations Charter and has the responsibility of maintaining international peace and security, according to the Council’s website. The Council has 15 members, of which five are permanent and 10 are non-permanent. Non-permanent countries are elected from their regions.
As an added responsibility according to the website, “The Security Council also recommends to the General Assembly the appointment of the Secretary-General and the admission of new members to the United Nations. And, together with the General Assembly, it elects the judges of the International Court of Justice.”
Ahead of the 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2014, Bolivian President Evo Morales, in an exclusive interview with Russia Today (RT), minced no words as he denounced the Security Council as an exclusive 15- member group that he said caused more harm than good.
“I don’t believe in the Security Council. For me, the Security Council remains a council of insecurity for humanity,” the Latin American leader told RT.
He saluted the work of Russia and China, who are permanent members, but denounced the Council saying “[it] still acts under the power of imperialism and capitalism without taking into consideration the decisions of the United Nations. The best we could do is end the security council.”
The 11th Round of Inter-Governmental Negotiations on the reform of the Security Council has seen Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Courtney Rattray appointed Chairmanship of those talks, the NY Carib News reported in November of this year.
That report further stated that CARICOM in a joint statement delivered by Menissa Rambally, St. Lucia’s UN Ambassador, hailed Rattray’s appointment, expressing the hope that as Chair, he would “lead us forward on this important debate. The appointment is a welcome development as it brings not only fresh leadership, but hopefully innovative ideas to what has been a stalled process so far.”
Further, it said that Guyana and her sister countries in CARICOM expressed concern that after 10 rounds and seven years of inter-governmental negotiations, “nothing has changed on this subject, except for the momentum placed by the leadership of the General assembly, who did their utmost in this regard.”

(By Derwayne Wills)