UN Security Council Gets Five New Members for Two-Year Term

Chad, Chile, Lithuania, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia have been elected to serve on the United Nations Security Council for a two year term beginning Jan 1, 2014. The UN General Assembly, elected the five countries as as non-permanent members to the Security Council on Thursday. These countries will replace Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo, whose terms will conclude by the end of the year.

A new released issued by the UN said, the five countries obtained the requisite two-thirds majority in the 193-member General Assembly, among those Member States, present and voting.

The UN Charter provides the 15-member Security Council the primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security for which it can impose economic sanctions, trade blockades and even authorize the use of force.

Of the all powerful fifteen members Security Council, five are permanent members. The other ten members are elected by the General Assembly on a two year term.

The permanent members - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States - enjoy the power of veto making them all powerful, even in the Security Council.

The other five non-permanent members - Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, the Republic of Korea and Rwanda - will retain their Security Council seat until the end of 2014.

There has been severe opposition among several countries who believe that the veto for five permanent members, provided under the UN Charter, gives the five nations, undue powers to stifle collective action.

The newly elected Security Council member, Chile, in particular, has been vocal in demanding reform in the structure of the 15-member decision making body.

Addressing the 68th Annual Session of the UN General Assembly, the Chilean President Sebastián Piñera had called for reforming the Security Council by increasing its membership and calling on permanent members to abandon their veto power. Chile had demanded that the world body institute a super-majority rule for the adoption of major decisions at the Security Council.

Notably, Australia had assumed the month-long Presidency of the UN Security Council in Sept at a time when the world body was faced with the challenging question of looming U.S. attack on Syria and the 68th Annual General Assembly debate were in progress. Following the English alphabetic order, Azerbaijan assumed the Presidency of the 15-member body in October and will be followed by China in Nov and France in Dec.