At a closed door meeting of the 192-member Assembly where Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa made the announcement on Thursday, several Ambassadors made suggestions on how to proceed during the consultations but there was no discussion on the substantive issues with each member state playing cards close to the chest.
But outside the Assembly chamber, hectic diplomatic activity began almost immediately as proponents of various scenarios began lining up supporters. The five, who are called facilitators, are expected to begin serious consultations around February 19 and have been asked to submit their reports to Sheikha Haya before the end of March.
On the basis of their reports, Sheikha Haya is expected to begin consultation early April in an effort to break impasse on the expansion, which lasted for more than 15 years.
India, Germany, Japan and Brazil, known as Group of four (G-4), who are seeking permanent membership in an expanded Council, have already begun discussions among themselves and other member states.
Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus group, which is popularly known as Coffee club, has also become active once again after hibernating for several months. It opposes expansion in the permanent category, arguing that it does not want to create more centres of privilege.
But G-4 and a majority of members of the 192-Assembly support expansion in both permanent and non-permanent categories, arguing that archaic Second World War structure of the Council needs drastic reforms to reflect the current realities in which dozens of countries have gained independence and economic power is shifting.
Sheikha Haya has identified the five areas for consultations as membership that is whether expansion should be in both permanent and non permanent categories, veto power, regional representation, the size of enlarged Council and the relationship between the Council and the Assembly.
The facilitators for the five areas respectively are Ali Hachani of Tunisia, Andreas D. Mavroyiannis of Cyprus, Mirjana Mladineo of Croatia, Heraldo Mu1oz of Chile and Frank Majoor of the Netherlands.
"The process of facilitation should reflect the views of the entire membership in a fair and factual manner, while underlining the areas of broad agreement within the membership," said the Assembly president in naming the facilitators at a closed-door meeting.
Sheikha Haya asked the facilitators, who are to report back to her by end of March, to interact with all Member States in an open, inclusive and transparent way. Their findings will then be presented to Member States to advance the reform process, which has been at an impasse for 15 years due to its sensitive political nature.
These consultations are the beginning of a process, Sheika Haya said, emphasising that although five key areas have been targeted, delegates are welcome to raise any other issues they deem essential in restructuring the Council. It will continue to be open to the views of all member states.
Amendments, which took effect in 1965, to the UN Charter raised the number of non-permanent members of the Council from six to 10. The five veto-wielding permanent members China, France, the Russian Federation, the UK and the US have remained essentially unchanged since the Council's inception.
In March 2005, former Secretary-General Kofi Annan unveiled two possible blueprints for Council reform in a report entitled 'In Larger Freedom'.
The first calls for six new permanent seats, two each from Africa and Asia and one each from Europe and the Americas, with no new vetoes. The latter does not provide for new permanent members, but instead the creation of eight four-year renewable term seats and one two-year non-permanent and non-renewable seat, all to be dispersed among the major regional areas.
Currently, the non-permanent members serve for two years and are not eligible for re-election immediately after finishing their term.
She asserted that Council reform is an essential element of our overall effort to reform the United Nations in order to make it more representative, efficient and transparent, and to further enhance its effectiveness and the legitimacy of its decisions.
