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Wednesday, 17 November 2021 (YJC)_ Iran's representative to the UN said: An evaluation of the Security Council's performance shows that its growing inefficiency has led to a crisis of legitimacy, credibility and a serious decline in trust and confidence in the institution, making its correction inevitable.
Takht-e Ravanchi, Iran's representative to the United Nations, spoke on Security Council amendments.
The text of Majid Takht Ravanchi's speech is as follows:
The ultimate goal of the Security Council reform process should be to address all of its current challenges and inefficiencies and to make it a truly effective, transparent, accountable and, above all, legitimate institution.
We support the increase in council membership as a measure to address inequality in the presence of representatives from different regions, but we do not see this as an independent goal in itself.
Although there are currently efforts to focus more on increasing council members and introducing this measure as equivalent to council reform and efficiency, the debate on increasing council members cannot continue at the expense of other issues.
Increasing council membership, however important, is just one of many goals in the council reform process. The importance of improving the Council's working methods and making it accountable, and ensuring that all its decisions are taken in accordance with the goals and principles of the United Nations and international law, is in no less important than increasing the membership of the Council.
Security Council reform should be seen as a comprehensive process in which all five key issues under consideration should be considered equal and discussed in full and in an interrelated package. Therefore, selective approaches should be avoided.
Although Iran attaches great importance to ensuring "fair representation" in the Security Council, it does not see this as sufficient to improve its effectiveness.
The West currently has a strong presence and influence in the Security Council, and three Western countries have vetoes. Other geographical areas are in an unequal position, both in terms of the number of members on the council and in terms of other privileges, including vetoes. This means inequality "between regions".
Also, many countries within a particular region have never had a chance to become a member of the council, while there are governments in the same region that have each been council members for 10 to 22 years. This also means inequality "within a region."
Therefore, the existing inequality "between different regions" and "within regions" must be eliminated because these two are necessary and complementary.
This is important for the 103 countries, 63 of which have never been members of the Council in the past 76 years, and 40 of which have only been members once. This is also necessary to ensure the geopolitical and geographical balance in the Security Council.
In this regard, we fully support both the elimination of historical injustices against developing countries from different regions, especially Africa, and the guarantee of equal opportunities for governments in a particular region. The latter can be achieved, for example, by limiting opportunities for countries that have been members of the Council for a longer period of time, and instead providing more opportunities for countries in the same region that have never been members of the Council or have been members for less. In this regard, one can even consider a combination of factors such as population, economic power and regional position.
Reforms that only serve the interests of one region or several specific governments in a region are not acceptable and should be based on any proposal that de facto deepens current inequality or reduces equal opportunities for governments to join the council, or in principle Intrinsic equality of sovereignty and equal rights of governments, transparency and accountability are in conflict, should be seriously avoided.
We also attach great importance to reforming the Council's working methods and ensuring that it acts in full compliance with international law, in particular the Charter of the United Nations. The Security Council must refrain from making extrajudicial decisions, as well as from recourse to its powers under Chapter VII of the Charter, and to use such powers only as a last resort.
The use of sanctions as an unwise method has raised fundamental ethical questions about whether imposing suffering on vulnerable groups is a legitimate means of exerting pressure on the target country.
In the past, some Security Council sanctions have been imposed only for the collective punishment of an entire nation, without any real or positive effect on the maintenance of international peace and security.
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