The Security Council

As I studied International conflicts I began to find certain patterns. In most of the articles I read there was a point where the UN official stance was commented. Then I realized that in many cases the United Nations Security Council reaction to the conflicts was indeed part of the problem.

The United Nations Security Council is defined by the United Nations Charter, Chap. V, Art. 24 as the organism that has the “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.” This reveals the essential role of the Security Council inside the UN as the entity responsible of achieving one of the UN’s most important goals – after all, the United Nation’s first purpose, according the Chap. I, Art 1 of the Charter, is “To maintain international peace and security.” Thus, at the internal level, from the dozens of organization that comprise the UN, the Security is the only one directly responsible to undertake the tasks that give the UN a purpose. At the international level this means that from the 192 states members of the UN, only fifteen have a voice and a vote when it comes to face a conflicts. As we will see, from these fifteen states only five can make a real difference.

In order to understand the latter statement, we must look at the structure and composition of the United Nations Security Council:

Permanent Members (same since 1945)	Non Permanent Members (elected for 2 year terms)
People’s Republic of China	3 from Africa*
French Republic	2 from Latin America and the Caribbean
Russian Federation	2 from Asia*
United States of America	2 From Europe and other regions
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	* 1 Arab country must be included in the seats of one these regions

Table 1. Source: “UN Security Council”. United Nations. United Nations. 27 Oct. 2007. [http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/unsc_background.html].

The resolutions of the Security Council are decided by voting. Each member has one vote. When a procedural matter is being decided, at least nine of the fifteen members have to vote in favor. However, when it comes to important matters – the ones for which the Security Council was created for, such as the resolution of the United Nations in reaction to an international conflict – the system is quite different: these decisions are made by nine votes, which must include the votes of all the five permanent members. The Security Council itself calls this situation the rule of “great Power unanimity” (Security Council). This is what is usually known as the veto power of the permanent members – if just one of these countries does not vote affirmatively no important resolution can be made.

Thus, as its structure, functions and composition reveals, the UN is a rather undemocratic organization. The task to accomplish its most important goal and purpose (the prevention and resolution of conflicts among nations) is basically reserved to a single organization composed by a handful of states. At the same time, inside this organization even a more reduced group of states has a privileged position. Therefore, the interference of individual interests of these countries with the general purpose for which both the Security Council and the United Nations were created is inevitable.