UNITED NATIONS, Nov 27: A blue-ribbon committee was set to release a much-awaited report on Dec 2 recommending the Security Council grow from 15 to 24 members, but with two proposed models for assigning the seats, diplomats said on Saturday.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan named the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change to study ways the body could better face today's world. Former Thai prime minister Anand Panyarachun chairs the 16-member panel.
Mr Annan wants to submit the reform proposals to the UN General Assembly for adoption in time for the 60th anniversary of the United Nations.
According to information supplied by several diplomats, the report recommends two models for reforming the Security Council, the principal UN decision-making body.
The sources said the two models are based on a new distribution of the member countries into four geographic groups: Africa, Europe (Western and Eastern), the Americas (North and South) and Asia (including Australia and New Zealand).
As things stand, the 191 UN member nations are divided into five regions. The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand form part of the "west" with Western Europe, while former Soviet-bloc countries are part of a different group.
The two proposed models would chose six representatives from each group for the council, for a total of 24 members.
The current Security Council has 15 members, five of which are permanent, each with a veto over matters brought before the body: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. The other 10 rotating members are chosen by their geographic group for a nonrenewable two-year period.
The first of two reform models would add three rotating members and six new permanent members, but without a veto.
The second model would leave in place the permanent members and would add nine new rotating members. However, eight of the nine countries, two per geographic group, would become "semi-permanent" members, serving four-year terms instead of the current two-year terms and the possibility of being re-elected for another four years.
According to UN diplomats, the panel's report only makes a series of proposals, without assigning of the new seats to any of the countries that could benefit.
However, it is clear that in the first model, the six new permanent seats appear to be destined to Germany, Brazil, India and Japan, as well as two unnamed African countries.
The four named countries officially mounted in September a campaign to be included as a slate. Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria have also voiced their candidacy for permanent seats.
Calls went out nearly a decade ago for broader representation on the Security Council, to include the larger developing countries and to give the permanent group better geographical balance.
The question as to whether at the end of the day there will be a reform remains open.
"You could say that the panel failed to find an agreement," said one diplomat of the two-proposal report, on condition of anonymity.
"The fact that the panel could not agree on one model shows that it didn't know how to move forward, but instead is playing back the ball to the member states."-AFP
