The council is currently composed of five permanent members -- the US, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, China and France -- and 10 non-permanent members (year their terms expire): Burkina Faso (2009), Costa Rica (2009), Croatia (2009), Vietnam (2009), the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (2009), Austria (2010), Japan (2010), Mexico (2010), Uganda (2010) and Turkey (2010).The General Assembly elected Austria, Japan, Mexico, Uganda and Turkey to serve as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms starting on Jan. 1, 2009, replacing Belgium, Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa.
The presidency of the Security Council is held in turn by the members of the Security Council in the English alphabetical order of their names. Each president holds office for one calendar month.
The 10 non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms and are not eligible for immediate re-election. The number of non-permanent members was increased from six to 10 by an amendment of the UN Charter that came into force in 1965.
Each council member has one vote. Decisions on procedural matters are made by an affirmative vote of at least nine of the 15 members. Decisions on substantive matters require nine votes, including the concurring votes of all five permanent members. That is called the rule of "great power unanimity," often referred as "veto" power.
Under the UN Charter, all members of the UN agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council. While other organs of the UN make recommendations to governments, the council alone has the power to make decisions that member states are obliged under the charter to carry out.
The structure and function of the council as explained above has been subject to many reform proposals and plans in the past (to be precise for the last 16 years), differing over how many new council seats should be added, who should occupy them, whether they should be permanent, semi-permanent or non-permanent, and which if any new states should have veto power.
Last year, Germany, which wishes to become a permanent member, circulated a draft text proposing the addition of seven new members -- two each from Africa and Asia and one each from Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe -- but left open the terms of the membership.
Three weeks ago, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his country and Britain would push for a temporary reform and proposed that permanent members should include an African state, a Latin American state and India, adding that the memberships of Germany and Japan could be discussed.
Through these developments and a recent initiative taken by the UN General Assembly itself, the reform and restructuring of the council is once again on the international agenda.
In fact, General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto has initiated an intergovernmental work group on the reforms and selected Zahir Tanin, the permanent representative to the UN for Afghanistan, to jumpstart the reform process. Tanin said recently that the competition over different reform proposals had ended and that intergovernmental negotiations towards compromises were on the agenda of the General Assembly.
According to the UN, the key issues needing reform include the category of membership, the question of veto, regional representation, the size of an enlarged council, the working methods of the council and its relationship with the General Assembly.
These issues are, of course, key to a new, up-to-date and above all more democratic council, which could enhance world peace and security better than in the past. Let us hope that this time long-awaited and long overdue UN Security Council reforms are enacted.
