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(Resumed) Working methods of the Security Council - Security Council, 10043rd meeting
The Security Council must address issues hampering its working methods and credibility, including broadening penholder access, enhancing transparency, unblocking delays in filling and operationalizing subsidiary bodies, and restraining use of the veto, speakers urged the 15-member organ today as it undertook its annual open debate on the subject.
The debate is “the one day of the year” when Council members and the wider UN membership meet to discuss how the Council works to carry out this primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security, emphasized Loraine Sievers, Director, Security Council Procedure, and co-author of The Procedure of the UN Security Council. In addition to issues cited above, the Council should further address the balance between public and private meetings; enhancing relations with the wider UN membership, especially troop- and police-contributing countries; and the 2026 appointment process for the next Secretary-General.
The organ and the UN itself can gain or lose credibility “depending on how orderly and professionally” its meetings are conducted, she observed. On participation of non-Council Member States, she highlighted instances where a non-Member was not invited when it should have been — and conversely, complaints that a non-member was invited to participate, despite objections raised by a Council member, or even a non-member. “Such disputes over participation risk creating ill will on both sides,” she cautioned. Rule 37 of the Council’s Provisional Rules of Procedure gives as one criterion for participation that the Council consider the interests of a non-member to be “specially affected”.