Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
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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 VICLUSTER II
Mongolia: working paper*
1. One of the questions to which the Working Group needs to draw its attention is participation of non-members of the Security Council in its formal meetings. Whatever the number of members by which the Council would be increased, the overwhelming majority of the States Members of the United Nations that, according to Article 25 of the Charter of the United Nations have agreed "to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council", would not be directly represented in the Council. Therefore, fuller participation by non-members of the Council in the latter's proceedings should be allowed, especially in the discussion of questions brought before the Council that affect the specific interests of those States. This would be in line with the spirit of the democratization process and of increased transparency in the functioning of the principal organs of the United Nations in general, and of the Security Council in particular. It would also promote the effectiveness of the Council, finding just and lasting solutions to the questions tackled by the Council and fuller implementation of its decisions.
2. Fuller participation in the proceedings of the Council by non-members, the interests of which are being affected, should not be limited to making formal statements or to participation in informal consultations, however important they may be. Fuller participation by non-members of the Council at every stage of the formal proceedings of the Council's official meetings, where official records are kept and formal rules of procedure apply, should be ensured and formalized.
3. Such participation could cover the debates on the inclusion or non-inclusion of the item on the Council's agenda; submission of proposals and draft resolutions (so far allowed only with respect to questions considered under Article 32 of the Charter); making clarifications; giving replies; proposing substantive or procedural motions for the Council's consideration; putting forward motions concerning the competence of the Council to consider a given question; and having access to all relevant documentation as well as the right to distribute documents relevant to the question under consideration.
4. Moreover, non-members' right to participate in the work of the subsidiary organs (commissions and committees) established for consideration of the questions referred to in Articles 31 and 32 of the Charter, as well as in the discussion of their reports by the Council, should also be formalized. These changes could be formalized or institutionalized by amending the relevant provisions of the rules of procedure of the Security Council without necessarily amending the Charter of the United Nations.
*Previously issued as A/AC.247/1997/CRP.5 of 30 April 1997.
