‘UN needs to take stock of its hits and misses in its 80th year’

Reform of UN Security Council's permanent membership remains a challenge, discussed at UN80DIC conference by global experts.

Reform of the United Nations’ Security Council’s permanent membership norms continues to be a sticky issue even as the global body marks the 80th year of its establishment, T.P. Sreenivasan, former ambassador and permanent representative of India to the UN, said on Wednesday.

Mr. Sreenivasan was speaking at the inauguration of a three-day conference on the theme ‘United Nations at 80: Developments, Issues and Challenges (UN80DIC)’, organised by the Tamil Nadu National Law University (TNNLU) in collaboration with Lincoln Global Law Chambers in Tiruchi on Wednesday.

In his address, Mr. Sreenivasan said that he had been present at the session in 1979 when India had proposed the expansion of the Security Council’s permanent membership, but little had progressed since then.

“We do not often realise that it is only the permanent members who are blocking the expansion of the Security Council. But there is a much bigger group of at least 70 member countries of the General Assembly in the UN that do not want any change, because they have no chance of becoming a permanent member ever,” he said.

He also opined that the UN could have worked harder to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. “Why is it that COVID-19 was not discussed in the Security Council, when the UN authorised the entire system to fight Ebola and HIV-AIDS? COVID-19 was left to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and thousands died as there was no international cooperation,” he said. He hoped that the global organisation would work harder to achieve flexibility in keeping with changing times.

Mukesh Kapila, British medical professional and professor at Oxford University, said that the UN touched lives across the world.

“Whether it is the influenza vaccine, the postal service, flight services, across all the sectors you can think of, somewhere there is a UN agency developing norms and standards for the world. But at the same time, there seem to be more conflicts and wars going on now than before. So there is a lot more to be changed,” Dr. Kapila said.