'UN seats not first priority'

2005-07-12 21:16

Pretoria - Discussions on expanding membership of the United Nations (UN) security council should not eclipse the need for pursuing more general UN reforms, deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday.

"We must deal with the security council issue in the context of the totality of the changes that have to be made to the entire UN system," he said.

"We should not allow the security council discussion, which looks with forward resolution messy to say the least, to divert from fundamentally changing how the international world governance system works."

Pahad was hosting his Mexican counterpart, Maria de Lourdes Aranda Bezaury, for bilateral political and economic discussions.

Mexico does not support the proposed expansion of permanent membership of the security council. Africa is asking for two permanent and five non-permanent seats.

Bezaury explained Mexico was in favour of UN reform and would welcome new council members, but not permanent ones.

Bezaury said they hoped to conclude the issue on the security council and go on working for the Millennium Summit, which is fundamental for developing countries."

Summit to assess UN goals

The summit, to be held in New York in September, is to review progress made with UN goals agreed upon in 2000 for global poverty reduction and development.

Bezaury said the UN should pay more attention to developmental issues and concentrate less on the security concerns of developed countries.

Mexico was among a group of countries calling itself United for Consensus, who believed a decision on the expansion of the security council should be based on consensus, not a vote.

"We want a United Nations, not a Divided Nations."

The grouping believed the security council should be democratic, and all member countries should have the same rights - with none enjoying veto power.

The security council should consist of 25 members at most, 10 more than now, with elections every four years. This would boost the council's accountability, Bezaury said.

"The permanent members who are there now are not accountable except to themselves or maybe their constituencies. If you have to be re-elected as a member, you will take into account the opinions of all other countries. It will make for a more democratic security council."

Africa needs larger representation

Bezaury said the group understood Africa's position on the matter, and agreed the continent should have larger representation.

"But as a matter of principle, Mexico is against having more permanent members. From the beginning, that is what has been wrong with the security council and we don't understand why should we make this way of working even larger."

South Africa agreed with Mexico's position, Pahad said, that reform was required for the UN and its institutions to better deal with "fundamental" issues like peace, human rights, terrorism and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

- SAPA