Shedding the ostrich-like attitude towards the problems the world is facing today, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) must reform itself at the earliest to play the assigned role of maintaining international peace and security. The demand being raised by various nations including India for a long time, has now got the support of Csaba Korosi, president of the United Nations General Council (UNGC), who has termed the world peace body as paralysed and dysfunctional. At the same time, UNGC president has also singled out the existing veto power system for the continuance of war in Eastern Europe by stating that the power prevented the peace forum from taking action against one of its permanent members, which attacked a neighbour. The frustration exhibited by the UNGC president is quite understandable as two important resolutions on Ukraine, which were meant to prevent the continuance of the war for nearly a year, could not be passed as Russia vetoed against both the resolutions. Korosi further alleged that UNSC is completely detached from today’s realities and is regularly failing to perform its duties. Clearly, it is time now for UN to take note of the remarks made by the UNGC president for the sake of lasting peace in the world, by making UNSC effective.
It may sound strange that since its inception after the Second World War, UNSC has changed its composition only once, back in 1965 when the number of council members was increased from 11 to 15. However, the change was cosmetic in nature and served no meaningful purpose as the number of permanent members enjoying veto powers remained the same. Since then, all suggestions to reform and revamp UNSC have fallen on deaf ears and have brought the world to the brink of another world war if Eastern Europe remains disturbed for some more months. It is difficult to understand, despite criticism from almost all quarters, why UNSC is continuing with the undemocratic practice of veto power, which is discriminatory to say the least. The UNSC needs to undergo a fundamental change to prove its worth in troubled times.
As a matter of fact, in the present form UNSC can best be described as a toothless tiger as it has not been able to play any significant role in diffusing any crisis situation post Second World War, mainly because of its tilt towards powerful nations, ignoring the rightful cry of poor and smaller nations. It has lost its credibility by being in favour of rich nations, ignoring the needs of developing nations on various occasions. Thus the need of the hour is to make UNSC more representative and inclusive so that the voice of the smaller nations are not suppressed. It’s time now for the international community to unanimously demand UNSC reform to provide a level-playing field to all member states of UN. In this context, India as president of G20 has an important role to play in making UNSC relevant again. If reform is not undertaken, witnessing a peaceful world will remain a distant dream.
