Context: At a special session marking 75 years of the United Nations, the Prime Minister of India called for reform of its outdated structures, pointing out that in the absence of comprehensive changes, the world body today faces a crisis of confidence.
India’s call for UNSC Reforms

• India has been at the forefront of demanding reform in the UN, particularly its principal organ, the Security Council.
• For decades, India has been staking its claim as one of the world’s largest economies and most populous countries, with a track record in promoting a rules-based international order, and contributing to peacekeeping through UN forces.
• Despite the dysfunctional power balance that prevails, the UN’s reform process, held through Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) has not made progress over decades.

The UN has chosen to roll over the discussions of the IGN, which are looking at five major issues:

• Enlarging the Security Council.
• Categories of membership.
• The question of the veto that five Permanent Members of the UNSC wield.
• Regional representation.
• Redistributing the Security Council-General Assembly power balance.

Need for Reforms

• The UN was born in the crisis of the World War era, and the realities of that time can hardly be compared to the present.
• The UNSC’s permanent, veto-carrying members – the U.S., the U.K., France, Russia and later China, chosen by virtue of being winners of World War II can hardly claim adequate representation of the world’s leadership today.
• The UNSC does not include a permanent member from the African, Australian and South American continents.
• Pillars of the multilateral order, such as the G-4 group of Brazil, India, Germany and Japan, have been ignored for long.
• Many more representative options exist, and that has been the crux of the battle for change.
• There is a deep polarisation within the UN’s membership, so decisions are either not taken, or not heeded.
• Frequent divisions within the UNSC P-5 end up blocking key decisions.

Road Ahead

• These issues have become all the more significant at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has brought the world to a standstill; yet, the UN, the UNSC, and WHO have failed to play an effective role in helping nations deal with the spread.
• The UN’s 75th anniversary declaration passed by all members pledges to upgrade the United Nations with a commitment to instil new life in the discussions on the reform of the Security Council.
• The UNSC’s permanent members must recognise the deep peril the UN faces, look beyond their own interests for the greater good of the world and its peace-building architecture and support the reform process.