Amid erosion of UNSC role, Slovenia supports expanding UNSC

United Nations, Sep 4 (IANS) With the role of the Security Council eroding, Slovenia has supported expanding its elected and permanent categories.

Slovenia’s Permanent Representative Samuel Zbogar said this on Tuesday after assuming the presidency of the Security Council.

“I think the council needs to reform [and] that’s obvious because it does have issues with legitimacy among the general membership,” he said.

Speaking in his national capacity, he said, “As for us, we are supporting expansion in both categories. For us, of course, the most important is the expansion in [the] non-permanent membership, because we are, we will always be a non-permanent elected member”.

While it was “very difficult to see” how the reforms could come about, he said the African continent has a convincing case for permanent membership as they are the most under-represented.

“They have a very strong [logic to] push for the reform,” he said.

Zbogar warned of a growing trend where “more and more issues are being dealt with outside of the Council, either by the regional groups or a few countries together” and the UN and the Council are “being pushed to the side”.

He criticised the five permanent members (P5) — Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States — for the inability of the Security Council to act on the most important issues the world faces which has led to the erosion of its standing.

“We accuse permanent members: It is because of this disunity among the P5 that it is impossible for the council to be more forceful,” he said.

The Council has not been able to act on the Ukraine War and the Gaza conflict, because of the vetoes, he said.

“Even when we adopt resolutions, they are usually with abstentions,” and, that sends a negative message, he added.

“I’m sure that if you had only elected members in the council, you would have more solutions adopted on different issues,” he said.

But on the issue of the veto rights of the permanent members, he said, “Realistically, it’s difficult to see how it will get eliminated, but I think there’s a way, and it should be discussed how it could be more regulated.”

France and Mexico have proposed that permanent members should not use their veto rights in cases of mass atrocities and in cases that involve themselves.

Slovenia is convening a high-level open debate on “Leadership for Peace” that will be presided over by Prime Minister Robert Golob on September 25 in the middle of the General Assembly summit.

“The world is becoming less stable, less peaceful, and with the erosion of the respect for the rules, it is sliding into the state of disorder,” Zbogar said.

The guiding theme of the meeting would be “the higher need to rebuild trust to secure the future” and the “precondition for rebuilding trust is full respect and compliance with the Charter of the United Nations”.

“We want the Security Council members to try to reflect on that, and try to answer that, and try to self-reflect how we can do better as the Council,” he said.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)