Addressing the General Assembly as it examined reform of the Council, a topic whose resolution has been hamstrung for nearly 15 years by entrenched differences over the best way forward, Kuwaiti diplomat Sheikha Alajeel said the reform of the Council "is stuck in its tracks" despite the fact that years had passed since the Assembly had adopted a resolution to create an open-ended working group to consider the issue.
She said, however, that Kuwait could not ignore the progress made during the Working Group’s discussions, and welcomed the general agreement to initiate intergovernmental negotiations during the current Assembly session, with a view to making the ideas of Council reform, subject to numerous discussions over the years, a reality.
"The hope was that a conciliatory agreement could be reached that would strengthen the Council’s role and effectiveness," she said.
She noted that Kuwait supported the reform of all United Nations bodies, especially the Council.
"Any change in the composition of the Council’s membership should not affect its capability and efficiency in making decisions to confront international threats, but lend more credibility to its decisions," she said.
Kuwait, she added, supported proposals to ease the flow of information to and from Member States, and supported, as well, the need to fully respect the functions of other organs, particularly the Assembly.
She stressed the need to adopt a list of permanent procedures to enhance and codify the Security Council’s actions and methods.
Concerning the veto right, she noted that Kuwait saw a need to place limits and controls on the scope of that mechanism, such as excluding it to matters that fell under Chapter VII of the Charter.
If agreement was reached on expanding the number of non-permanent seats, she suggested, distribution among regional groups must take into consideration the increase of Member States in the Asian Group.
She concluded by congratulating Turkey, Japan, Austria, Mexico and Uganda on their election last month as new non permanent members of the council for the period 2009-2010.
