Reforming informal membership and practice of the UN Security Council

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the world’s most important international decision-making body with the primary responsibility of maintaining international peace and security. Even though the Council is the only arena where such decisions can be made, it is not perfect. 

The growing workload of the UNSC has led to new and less formal ways of negotiation emerging within the Council, such as consultations and committees.

According to Niels Nagelhus Schia (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs) these less formal processes can positively influence the Council’s efficiency, but have the potential to bypass the current political deadlock on its necessary reform. 

Reforming the internal processes of the Council should focus on enhancing the transparency and democratic procedures, more influence of the ten elected member-states, better addressing the reflection of changes in the global distribution of power, more systematic and coherent relation with regional organizations such as the African Union (AU) and ECOWAS, and by improving the dynamics of the Council’s working methods. 

This blog post has been published before in the Sahel Watch programme of The Broker.