UNSC becomes an impaired organization, unable to act with credibility, says India

New York, November 17: Pointing out at United Nations Security Council (UNSC), India's permanent representative to the UN, T S Tirumurti on Monday said UNSC has become an "impaired organ"and it has been unable to act with credibility essentially due to its unrepresentative nature.

He made this remark while speaking at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly. He said, "Inside the IGN, nothing has moved for more than a decade except hearing passionate statements on the need for reform. It has not progressed since it is not only informative but it has no rules of procedure and has no records. For a decade it has remained that way. We are forced to keep our notes placing a tremendous burden on all small and medium states."

 

"The same countries who shed crocodile tears for small and medium states are the same ones denying them even the basic courtesy, which is to help them keep an official record of discussions," he said adding that what happens here has no record and we start again the next year as if nothing has happened. And of course, we don't even have a single negotiating text.

 

 

He also highlighted the Intergovernmental Negotiations saying it has become like a "platform for debate in the university. "IGN has become like a platform for debate in a University rather than a serious resulted-oriented process in the United Nations consisting of sovereign member states," Tirumurti added.

 

Taking a veiled dig at China, he slammed the countries which are hampering the progress of IGN and said that they were using the IGN as a "smoke-screen" to stop themselves from being identified by paying "lip-service" to UNSC reform.

Tirumurti said that several world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had called for urgent reforms within the Security Council. “Prime Minister Modi, echoing the aspirations of over a billion of my fellow citizens, asked, when will this reform-process ever reach its logical conclusion?” Tirumurti said. “The question that we are still asking here in IGN today is when will the reform process ever begin?”

 

"The conditions they are laying out are impossible to fulfill - which is full consensus of all member states. Ironically, this is happening at a time when we were in a tearing hurry last week to give ourselves e-voting rights. But for IGN, they want no voting, leave alone e-voting, but only full consensus!" he said.

 

"We need decisive movement this year. Without decisive movement, I feel that those who support real reform and who wish to deliver on the commitment made by our leaders will be forced to look beyond the IGN, maybe to this very Assembly, for results. If that happens, we must not hesitate in taking a relook at the IGN process itself," he added.

 

The United States, China, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom are five members of the UN Security Council. They have the power to veto a resolution. There has recently been a growing demand to increase the number of permanent members to represent the contemporary global situation.