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Report of the Working Group on the Security Council, 1997 Report of the Open-ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council and Other Matters Related to the Security Council
Annex IVWORKING METHODS AND TRANSPARENCY OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL
Non-paper submitted by the Bureau of the Working Group*Based on various contributions received from Member States and groups of Member States concerning the working methods and transparency of the Security Council, and the discussions on those proposals in the Working Group - in particular on the negotiating paper by the members of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries on Cluster II issues - the Bureau proposes that the following measures should be considered by the Open-ended Working Group with a view to their eventual adoption as part of a comprehensive package of a reform of the Security Council:
I. RELATIONS BETWEEN THE SECURITY COUNCIL, THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND THE GENERAL MEMBERSHIP OF THE UNITED NATIONS
A. Improvements to measures already taken by the Security Council 1. Formal meetings of the Security Council (a)
- The Security Council should have more frequent recourse to open meetings as a standard practice of the Council;
- The Security Council should consider organizing open public meetings of the Council as a matter of usual practice when special envoys of the Secretary-General are reporting to the Council.
2. Tentative forecast of programme of work of the Security Council (b)
- The annotated agenda and expected action to be taken at formal Security Council meetings should be included in the Journal of the United Nations.
3. Briefings by the President of the Security Council to non-members; availability of draft resolutions and summaries of informal discussions
- The President of the Security Council should be given more authority to give more detailed briefings to the non-members of the Council;
- The President of the Security Council should decide, under his/her authority, whether draft resolutions discussed informally in the Council should be distributed at those briefings;
- The President of the Security Council should decide, under his/her authority, whether his or her oral briefings should also be distributed to non-members of the Council in writing.
4. Consultations with troop-contributing countries (c)
- Consultations between the Security Council and troop-contributing countries should be held on a regular basis;
- Regional organizations and arrangements should be consulted/briefed as a matter of usual practice of the Security Council and more frequently than at present;
- More information about the consultations with the troop-contributing countries, as well as briefings given to those countries, should be included in the briefings of the President of the Security Council to the general membership;
- Briefings of the President of the Security Council should be held on days when consultations with troop-contributing countries have been undertaken and should take place immediately thereafter.
5. Report of the Security Council to the General Assembly (d)
- Each President of the Security Council should give his/her assessment of the month under his/her Presidency and this analytical statement should be attached to the report of the Council to the General Assembly; the analytical statements by the President could also be distributed separately to the non-members of the Council immediately after they are issued by the President of the Council;
- The annual report of the Security Council should be made available before the beginning of the general debate of the General Assembly;
- The Security Council should, through an appropriate procedure or mechanism, update the General Assembly on a regular basis on the steps it has taken or is contemplating with respect to improving its reporting to the Assembly;
- The Security Council should provide its annual report to the General Assembly in a timely manner and give a substantive and analytical account of its work;
- The Security Council should strengthen the section in its report on the steps taken by the Council to improve its working methods and transparency;
- The Security Council should include in its report information on requests received under Article 50 of the Charter and actions taken by the Council thereon.
B. New measures to be considered 1. Participation of non-members in informal consultations
(a) The Security Council should:
- Create a new practice of "informal meetings" or "closed formal meetings" of the Council where the interested parties that are not members of the Council could be heard;
- Resort more often to public meetings, also before the Council's informal consultations; interested parties could present their views in those meetings.
(b) Security Council members should use the so-called "Arria formula" more. In addition, informal meetings organized by the Secretariat or a member of the Council to which interested parties and non-governmental organizations could also be invited ("Somavia formula") should be instituted.
2. Meetings of the Security Council in pursuance of Article 35 of the Charter
The rules of procedure of the Security Council should allow any Member of the United Nations to request an urgent meeting of the Security Council in cases when the Member State feels there is a threat to international peace and security. The President of the Council should circulate such requests promptly as documents of the Council. The rules of procedure should require that, unless the Council decides otherwise, the President should convene a meeting of the Council to hear the Member in question.
3. Consultations pursuant to Article 50 of the Charter
The rules of procedure of the Security Council should include a provision or a decision by the Council operationalizing the right contained in Article 50 of the Charter of the United Nations for Member States to consult the Council with regard to a solution of problems arising from their implementation of preventive or enforcement measures imposed by the Council.
4. Mechanism to alert non-members of the Security Council of unscheduled or weekend meetings
The Secretariat should establish a voice-recording alerting non-members of the Security Council of unscheduled or emergency meetings of the Council during nights, weekends or holidays.
5. Consultations between the Presidents of the Security Council and of the General Assembly
Consultations between the Presidents of the Security Council and of the General Assembly should take place regularly/at least every month and in the event of international crises or urgent developments more frequently.
II. SUBSIDIARY ORGANS OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL Sanctions committees (e)
- Decisions and/or those parts of the summaries of the proceedings of the sanctions committees which do not compromise the confidentiality of the work of the committees should be made available also to non-members of the Security Council;
- The eventual results of an Agenda for Peace subgroup on sanctions should be fully taken into account/implemented by the Council.
III. RELATIONS BETWEEN THE SECURITY COUNCIL AND THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE The Security Council shall use, as appropriate, the International Court of Justice in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
IV. RELATIONS BETWEEN THE SECURITY COUNCIL AND REGIONAL ARRANGEMENTS, ORGANIZATIONS AND AGENCIES In its relations with regional arrangements, organizations and agencies the Security Council should fully take into account/implement the provisions of General Assembly resolution 49/57 of 9 December 1994 and the eventual results of the Agenda for Peace subgroup on coordination related to this matter.
V. DECISION-MAKING IN THE SECURITY COUNCIL, INCLUDING THE VETO
A. Veto 1. The Security Council should:
- Update the annex of General Assembly resolution 267 (III) of 14 April 1949, containing a list of decisions deemed procedural;
- Explore the proposal on achieving an understanding that a permanent member can cast a negative vote on a substantive matter without it being interpreted as a veto;
- Explore individual voluntary declarations by the permanent members to limit the scope of application of the veto.
2. The Charter should be amended so that, as a first step, the veto power should apply only to actions taken under Chapter VII.
B. Action threshold [to be provided or to be deleted]
VI. RULES OF PROCEDURE AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MEASURES TAKEN BY THE SECURITY COUNCIL TO ENHANCE ITS WORKING METHODS AND TRANSPARENCY The Security Council should immediately start the process of finalizing its provisional rules of procedure. Towards that end the following measures should be taken by the Council:
(a) The arrangements regarding various measures the Security Council has already adopted to enhance its working methods and transparency (f) should be institutionalized by transforming the corresponding presidential statements or notes by the President of the Council into annexes to its provisional rules of procedure. Preceding that annexation a comprehensive review of each of the present arrangements should be undertaken with a view to adding the improvements described above to the existing ones;
(b) The comprehensive review should also include consideration of any new measures discussed above, the results of which should also be annexed to the provisional rules of procedure;
(c) After the review of the provisional rules of procedure described in paragraphs (a) and (b) above the word "provisional" should be deleted.
* Previously issued as A/AC.247/1997/CRP.3 of 18 April 1997.(a) The statement by the President of the Security Council dated 16 December 1994 (S/PRST/1994/81) applies to existing arrangements.
(b) The note by the President of the Security Council dated 27 July 1993 (S/26176) applies to existing arrangements.
(c) The statements by the President of the Security Council dated 3 May 1994 (S/PRST/1994/22), 4 November 1994 (S/PRST/1994/62) and 28 March 1996 (S/PRST/1996/13) apply to existing arrangements.
(d) The note by the President of the Security Council dated 30 June 1993 (S/26015) applies to existing arrangements.
(e) The notes by the President of the Security Council dated 29 March 1995 (S/1995/234), 31 May 1995 (S/1995/438) and 24 January 1996 (S/1996/54) apply to existing arrangements.
(f) See sections I.A.1-5 and II.
