Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India and United Nations SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres have called for urgently reforming the Security Council in the face of dire challenges to the world organisation. India’s Permanent Representative P. Harish on January 26 said the reform must add permanent members to make the international rule of law effective when the world organisation “at its core is under strain”.
“Paralysis and lack of effectiveness in tackling conflicts remain a significant shortcoming” testing the UN’s credibility, he said at the Council’s high-level open debate on “Reaffirming International Rule of Law”. “For multilateralism and international rule of law to remain effective and credible, global governance structures must evolve to reflect contemporary realities,” he said.
Guterres, who warned that “around the world, the rule of law is being replaced by the law of the jungle,” said. Only the Council can make decisions binding on all, and “no other body or ad-hoc coalition can legally require all member states to comply with decisions on peace and security,” he said. The Council has singular and universal responsibility, since under the UN Charter, it alone can authorise the use of force, he said.
Harish added a note of caution that, because of challenges to the Council’s relevance, “Security conversations and discussions have moved on to parallel plurilateral frameworks, some even involving private sector actors to bring about outcomes on peace and security outside the United Nations”.
While the world has undergone a profound transformation in the 80 years since the UN’s founding, the Council is stuck in a bygone era, he said.
Challenge to UN
Guterres’ reference to an “ad hoc coalition” and Harish’s mention of “parallel plurilateral” were about the Board of Peace that US President Donald Trump is creating as a challenge to the UN. “Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do,” he said last week at Davos. Although he added a rider, “We’ll do it in conjunction with the United Nations”, it still meant he was seeing a downgraded role for it.