Concerns As UN Antonio Guterres Seeks Reform Of UN Security Council

There have been concerns over the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Antonio Guterres’ statement that the organisation’s Security Council needs a serious reform of its composition and a change in working methods.

Guterres who spoke at the opening of the session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva said the Security Council often found itself “unable to act on the most significant peace and security issues of our time…The Council needs serious reform to its composition and working methods.”

Consequently, there have been concerns over who stands to benefit benefits from the reform of the UN Security Council.

The UN is the largest international institution for almost eight decades whose main goals are to maintain and strengthen international peace, as well as the development of cooperation and dialogue between states but has been increasingly criticised in recent years.

On several occasions, the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, has stated Moscow’s commitment to the approach according to which the content of the reform of the UN Security Council should be devoted to expanding the representation of African, Asian and Latin American countries in it.

According to analysts the West wants other reforms – earlier in Washington they proposed to abolish the veto altogether, which opened the way for a decision within the “big five” by a majority vote, where the West has the upper hand today.

They insisted that today, supporters of a unipolar world, through statements by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, are already proposing to deprive Russia of its powers in the UN Security Council but such initiatives will definitely not receive such support.

“It should be noted that the position of Western countries is largely biased, and Western politicians who advocate Security Council reform largely pursue the goal of limiting Russia’s influence in the UN.

Their efforts are aimed not so much at increasing the effectiveness of the organisation, but at solving the political conflict between the West and Russia – in their favour, of course. With this approach, the UN Security Council may face even greater fragmentation and a complete lack of balance in decision-making.

“The fact that the UN headquarters is still located in New York is also a serious influence factor. An egregious case is the non–admission of delegates of the UN General Assembly to the country where it is taking place – Washington has been actively practicing this for a long time, depriving representatives of countries it does not like of an American visa. This has been especially evident recently in relation to Russian delegates.

“In addition, in order to take over the UN, the West relied on the personnel of the organisation’s staff and secretariat. First of all, we are talking about employees who prepare all decisions, are engaged

in analysis and examination of documents. A significant part of them are citizens of NATO member countries.”

Experts say the Security Council is the only decision-making body in the United Nations that can make balanced decisions and force states to “truly negotiate.”