ShareNEW YORK: Kuwait has brought to the spotlight reforming the United Nations Security Council affirming that "arbitrary usage of the veto right" has compromised the UNSC credibility in some cases over the past years. "The usage of the veto led in some cases to preventing the council from shouldering responsibilities and taking the necessary precautions to preserve international peace and security," said Fahad Mohammad Al-Hajji, the First Secretary of the Kuwaiti mission, while addressing the UN General Assembly during a debate on just representation in the UNSC and prospects of increasing its members.
Hajji expressed deep regret that majority of the veto appliance cases, over the past three decades, had been related to causes in the Arab region. "There is also another challenges; that is setting the just and adequate representation of the geographic and regional groups in addition to improving the task methods where it has become necessary to make actions more effective and transparent," he said. The Kuwait First Secretary applauded appointment of the State of Kuwait Permanent Delegate at the UN, Ambassador Tareq Al-Bannai, and Slovakia's permanent envoy, Ambassador Michal Mlynar, as chief personnel in the government-level negotiations on reforming the UNSC.
He expressed gratitude to his Qatari peer, Ambassador Alya Al-Thani, and Danish counterpart, Ambassador Martin Hermann, for their leading role in these negotiations in the previous session. Underlining the unprecedented geopolitical events happening in the world nowadays, Hajji emphasized that these rapid developments "should prompt us to exert more efforts to push forward the government level negotiations on fixing the Security Council".
However, the Kuwaiti diplomat had drawn a bleak picture regarding the prospect of reforming the council, largely due to lack of "the required political will on part on the member states including the five permanent members." Noting Kuwait's unwavering stance for reforming the UNSC, Hajji pointed out that the council should be transformed to become more representative "and mirrors the globe status that has changed a lot since establishment of the United Nations in 1945".
Hajji renewed the call for granting Arab states the right to occupy permanent seats in the UNSC, in addition to increasing the number of their non-permanent seats. The Arab Group in the UNSC represents more than 400 million people and comprises 22 states; nearly 12 percent of the UN membership. - KUNA
