International Human Rights and the International Human Rights System A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions 3.1. The regional groupings Member States in the GA are organized into five regional groupings: • • • • • the Africa Group, with 54 States the Asia Group, with 54 States the Eastern European Group, with 23 States the Latin American and the Caribbean Group, with 33 States the Western European and Others Group, with 29 States. The ECOSOC and the HRC have the same regional groupings and their membership is divided proportionally into designated numbers of places for each grouping. UN elections are often conducted on this basis. There are a small number of States that are considered “special cases”. Turkey participates fully in two regional groups, the Asian Group and the Western European and Others Group (WEOG). The United States of America attends meetings of the WEOG only in an observer capacity and therefore does not cast any votes. Israel has only been a permanent member of the WEOG since 2004. The Pacific island State of Kiribati has never designated a permanent representative to the UN, unlike other Pacific island States that have been included in the Asian Group.49 4. THE SECURITY COUNCIL50 The SC is the most powerful UN organ, the only one with the legal authority to make binding and enforceable decisions. It is responsible for international peace and security, both through peaceful settlement of disputes under Chapter VI of the UN Charter and through enforcement action with respect to threats to peace, breaches of peace and acts of aggression under Chapter VII. It is said that under the UN Charter, the SC has a monopoly on authorizing the lawful use of force in the modern world. The SC has 15 members. Five members hold permanent seats and are known as the “P5” – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States of America.51 They were the Great Powers at the conclusion of World War II, when the UN Charter was negotiated and the UN was established. Ten members hold elected seats with terms of two years. They are elected by an absolute majority of the GA, with five being elected each year to enable rotating membership. The ten seats are allocated among the five UN regional groups of Member States and so the elections are conducted on that regional basis. Elected members are not entitled to a second consecutive term. Decision-making is subject to special majorities and vetoes. Each of the P5 has a veto and can defeat any proposal, even if all 14 other members are in favour of it. For any substantive matter to be resolved, the SC requires nine members to vote in favour, with none of the P5 voting against it. As a result, decision-making in the SC is a difficult, lengthy and highly politicized process. However, the rate of decision-making has been much faster over the past 20 years; the SC passed its 1000th resolution in 1995, its 50th year,52 but it passed its 2000th resolution late in 2011, its 66th year.53 The SC meets all year round, in fact, there are almost daily formal sessions or informal consultations. It usually meets in New York but it has occasional meetings elsewhere when there is some particular reason to do so; for example, as part of a mission to a particular country or region where it has a concern, or when it holds joint meetings with other international bodies or regional forums. 49 See: www.un.org/depts/DGACM/RegionalGroups.shtml. 50 For more information about the SC, including its membership, elections, agendas for meetings and resolutions, see: www.un.org/ Docs/sc. A New York-based NGO, Security Council Report, publishes monthly forecasts of SC activities, frequent alerts on developing issues and events and regular updates, with an email list for those wishing to be advised as new material becomes available; see: www.securitycouncilreport.org. 51 Russia took the seat of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics by way of State succession when the USSR was dissolved in 1991. The People’s Republic of China took the seat of the Republic of China in 1971. 52 S/RES/1000 (1995), regarding the extension of the United Nations Peace Keeping Operations in Cyprus. 53 S/RES/2000 (2011), regarding the extension of the United Nations Peace Keeping Operations in Cote d’Ivoire. Chapter 4: The United Nations charter-based system: An overview | 23