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General Assembly: 44th plenary meeting, 80th session
True Security Council Reform Crucial to Regaining Public Trust, Improving United Nations Global Image, Speakers Tell General Assembly
Question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and other matters related to the Security Council - Item 122 - Continuation of the debate on the item.
The United Nations has a slim window of opportunity to earn back public trust and burnish its global image — which is too often tarnished by the paralysis of its 15-member Security Council — the General Assembly heard today, as delegates warned that the Organization is widely judged by that most-headlined organ’s failure to end wars, prevent atrocity crimes and keep up with today’s emerging challenges.
“[This] is a moment of reflection, action and leadership to make this Organization, our United Nations, fit for the twenty-first century,” said Annalena Baerbock (Germany), President of the eightieth session of the General Assembly. Today’s debate comes at a time when the UN is undertaking a process of renewal, namely through the proposed “UN80” reform initiative, aimed at making the Organization more efficient, effective and responsive. A year after calls to reform the Security Council were enshrined in the landmark Pact for the Future, the Assembly’s 2025 high-level week saw widespread calls for urgent efforts to make that organ more inclusive, transparent, efficient, democratic and accountable.
Noting that she recently appointed two Co-Chairs of the Intergovernmental Negotiations process on reform — the permanent representatives of the Netherlands and Kuwait — to advance progress as a priority issue, she urged Member States to submit new reform proposals or to refine existing models, with a view to a “conciliated model that builds upon convergences”. Broad agreement already exists on the need for reform and on the principles that should guide it, she said. While change cannot happen in a matter of days, “we must show that progress is possible”.