Reforming the United Nations Security Council - a continuing process

Sammanfattning: Formed in the aftermath of the Second World War, the UN and its Security Council was given the primary responsibility for maintenance of international peace and security. Still today, sixty years later, the composition of permanent members in the Council has remained the same. A debate has been raging within the UN about the role of the Security Council. Special concern has been directed towards the Council acting inconsistently, not implementing its own resolutions and ignoring, or even violating, international law. The logic for expansion seems simple, the Council not having been subjected for change since 1963 when the number of non-permanent members increased to ten. The current fifteen members represent eight per cent of the total number of member states in the organisation, and claims for a more legitimate Council representing the actual UN membership has risen throughout the years. While basically accepting the premise of reform and enlargement of the Council, the negotiations have come to a stalemate regarding the details it would contain. Rivalry for permanency and members grouping up to support each other and reject others, has hindered the issue from progressing. In my thesis I investigate what is causing the deadlock on the matter, following the work on reform back in time. Renewed momentum for an amendment, changing the character of the decision-making body of the world, seemed to have come in that the General Assembly's sixtieth session was coming up in 2005. The Secretary General of that time, Kofi Annan, had earlier that year presented two models on reform in his report In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All to be taken in consideration before the meeting. He urged the member states to keep in mind the importance of a Council representative and accountable for the organisation. Before the General Assembly meeting different proposals similar to the Secretary General's were presented, promoting conformities of states for permanency. Still, no agreement could be settled at the World Summit 2005, the divergences and national interests of the members prevailed. Since then the debate has continued, but not much has progressed. As I show in my thesis the issue has many questions to be answered in the quest for improvement of the Council status. Many aspects need to be taken in consideration and the problems need to be tackled from different angles in order to see the whole picture, meaningly the divergences in perspective of all member states. In this thesis I examine the main conformities for reform and their proposals together with an analysis of the Security Council's need for reform, along with suggestions on how to precede the matter.