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5 (of 10) non-permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council | |||
Members of the Security Council after the 2004 election | |||
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The 2004 United Nations Security Council election was held on 15 October 2004 at United Nations Headquarters in New York City during the 59th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The General Assembly elected five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year terms commencing on 1 January 2005.
The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States and in the U.S. state of New York. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that was tasked to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international co-operation and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, and is subject to extraterritoriality. Further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states. Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, delivering humanitarian aid, promoting sustainable development and upholding international law. The UN is the largest, most familiar, most internationally represented and most powerful intergovernmental organization in the world. In 24 October 1945, at the end of World War II, the organization was established with the aim of preventing future wars. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193. The UN is the successor of the ineffective League of Nations.
The United Nations General Assembly is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), the only one in which all member nations have equal representation, and the main deliberative, policy-making, and representative organ of the UN. Its powers are to oversee the budget of the UN, appoint the non-permanent members to the Security Council, appoint the Secretary-General of the United Nations, receive reports from other parts of the UN, and make recommendations in the form of General Assembly Resolutions. It has also established numerous subsidiary organs.
The five candidate nations elected were Argentina, Denmark, Greece, Japan, and Tanzania.
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country located mostly in the southern half of South America. Sharing the bulk of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, the country is also bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, Brazil to the northeast, Uruguay and the South Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2 (1,073,500 sq mi), Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the fourth largest in the Americas, and the largest Spanish-speaking nation. The sovereign state is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires, which is the federal capital of the nation as decided by Congress. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system. Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country and the southernmost of the Scandinavian nations. Denmark lies southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and is bordered to the south by Germany. The Kingdom of Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark proper consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, Funen and the North Jutlandic Island. The islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. Denmark has a total area of 42,924 km2 (16,573 sq mi), land area of 42,394 km2 (16,368 sq mi), and the total area including Greenland and the Faroe Islands is 2,210,579 km2 (853,509 sq mi), and a population of 5.8 million.
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, self-identified and historically known as Hellas, is a country located in Southern and Southeast Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2016. Athens is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki.
In accordance with the General Assembly's rules for the geographic distribution of the non-permanent members of the Security Council, and established practice, the members were to be elected as follows: one from Africa, one from Asia, one from Latin American and the Caribbean, and two from Western Europe and Other States.
The United Nations Regional Groups are the geopolitical regional groups of the Member States of the United Nations. Originally, United Nations Member States were unofficially grouped into five geopolitical regional groups. However, what began as an informal means of sharing the distribution of posts for United Nations bodies quickly took on a much more expansive role. Depending on the context, the regional groups control elections to United Nations-related positions, on the basis of geographic representation, as well as coordinate substantive policy, and form common fronts for negotiations and voting.
The Western European and Others Group (WEOG) is one of five unofficial Regional Groups in the United Nations that act as voting blocs and negotiation forums. Regional voting blocs were formed in 1961 to encourage voting to various UN bodies from regional groups. As of 2010, there are 28 member states, plus one observer. Almost all members are in Western Europe, but the WEOG is unusual in that geography is not the sole defining factor; Europe is divided between the WEOG and the Eastern European Group, and the WEOG also contains Canada, Australia, New Zealand, which are culturally and politically descended from Western European states but are located far away from them. Israel is also a permanent member, due to its strong cultural and historical links with Western Europe and its inability to join the Asian Group due to opposition by Arab countries. The group also contains one observer, the United States, which has voluntarily chosen not to participate as a member, and attends meetings as an observer only. However, it is considered to be a member for putting forward candidates for electoral purposes in the United Nations General Assembly. Turkey participates fully in both the WEOG and the Asian Group, but for electoral purposes is considered a member of the WEOG only.
Before voting, the representative from Eritrea took the floor to formally withdraw his country's candidacy. The country has never been elected to the UN Security Council. Consequently, to Eritrea's withdrawal, all the available seats would be elected without any serious contest. The five declared candidates therefore easily obtained the required 2/3 majority in the General Assembly.
Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea is a country in the Horn of Africa, with its capital at Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeastern and eastern parts of Eritrea have an extensive coastline along the Red Sea. The nation has a total area of approximately 117,600 km2 (45,406 sq mi), and includes the Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands. Its toponym Eritrea is based on the Greek name for the Red Sea, which was first adopted for Italian Eritrea in 1890.
Voting proceeded by secret ballot. For each geographic group, each member state could vote for as many candidates as were to be elected. There were 189 ballots in each of the three elections.
Japan became the 69th member of the United Nations on December 18, 1956. Since then, Japan holds many international cooperations within the United Nations as a basic principle of its foreign policy. When Japan joined the UN in 1956, it did so with great enthusiasm and broad public support, for the international organization was seen to embody the pacified country's hopes for a peaceful world order. Membership was welcomed by many Japanese who saw the UN as a guarantor of a policy of unarmed neutrality for their nation, in addition to the security arrangement they concluded with US in 1951. To others, support for the UN would be useful in masking or diluting Japan's almost total dependence on the United States for its security. The government saw the UN as an ideal arena for its risk minimizing, omnidirectional foreign policy.
The European Union (EU) has had permanent observer status at the United Nations (UN) since 1974, and has had enhanced participation rights since 2011. The EU itself does not have voting rights but it is represented alongside its 28 members, two of which are permanent members of the Security Council.
The 2006 United Nations Security Council election began on 16 October 2006 during the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The elections were for five non-permanent seats on the Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 2007.
The 2005 United Nations Security Council election was held on 10 October 2005 during the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The elections were for five non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 2006. The countries elected were the Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar, and Slovakia.
The 2003 United Nations Security Council election was held on 23 October 2003 at United Nations Headquarters in New York City during the 58th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The General Assembly elected five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year terms commencing on 1 January 2004.
The 2001 United Nations Security Council election was held on 8 October 2001 at United Nations Headquarters in New York City during the 56th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The General Assembly elected five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year terms commencing on 1 January 2002.
The 1998 United Nations Security Council election was held on 8 October 1998 at United Nations Headquarters in New York City during the 53rd session of the United Nations General Assembly. The General Assembly elected five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year terms commencing on 1 January 1999.
The 1997 United Nations Security Council election was held on 14 October 1997 at United Nations Headquarters in New York City during the 52nd session of the United Nations General Assembly. The General Assembly elected five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year terms commencing on 1 January 1998.
The 1996 United Nations Security Council election was held on 21 October 1996 at United Nations Headquarters in New York City during the 51st session of the United Nations General Assembly. The General Assembly elected five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year terms commencing on 1 January 1997.
The 1995 United Nations Security Council election was held on 8 November 1995 at United Nations Headquarters in New York City during the 50th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The General Assembly elected five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year terms commencing on 1 January 1996.
The 2002 United Nations Security Council election was held on 27 September 2002 at United Nations Headquarters in New York City during the 57th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The General Assembly elected five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year terms commencing on 1 January 2003.
The 1988 United Nations Security Council election was held on 26 October 1988 during the Forty-third session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The General Assembly elected Canada, Colombia, Ethiopia, Finland, and Malaysia, as the five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1989.
The 1986 United Nations Security Council election was held on 16 October 1986 during the Forty-first session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The General Assembly elected Argentina, Italy, Japan, West Germany, and Zambia, as the five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1987.
The 1976 United Nations Security Council election was held on 21 October 1976 during the Thirty-first session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The General Assembly elected Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany, India, Mauritius, and Venezuela, as the five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1977.
The 1984 United Nations Security Council election was held from 22 October to 18 December 1984 during the Thirty-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The General Assembly elected Australia, Denmark, Madagascar, Thailand, and Trinidad and Tobago, as the five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1985.
The 1982 United Nations Security Council election was held on 19 October 1982 during the Thirty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The General Assembly elected Malta, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Pakistan, and Zimbabwe, as the five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1983.
The 1978 United Nations Security Council election was held on 10 November 1978 during the Thirty-third session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The General Assembly elected Bangladesh, Jamaica, Norway, Portugal, and Zambia, as the five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1979.
The 1974 United Nations Security Council election was held on 11 October 1974 during the Twenty-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The General Assembly elected Guyana, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and Tanzania, as the five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1975.
The 1972 United Nations Security Council election was held on 20 October 1972 during the Twenty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The General Assembly elected Australia, Austria, Indonesia, Kenya, and Peru, as the five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1973.
The 1970 United Nations Security Council election was held on 26 October 1970 during the Twenty-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The General Assembly elected Argentina, Belgium, Italy, Japan, and Somalia, as the five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1971.
The 1968 United Nations Security Council election was held on 1 November 1968 during the Twenty-third session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The General Assembly elected Colombia, Finland, Nepal, Spain, and Zambia, as the five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1969.
The 1967 United Nations Security Council election was held on 6 November 1967 during the Twenty-second session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The General Assembly elected Algeria, Hungary, Pakistan, Paraguay, and Senegal, as the five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1968.