United Nations Security Council election, 2013

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United Nations Security Council election, 2013
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←  2012 17 October and 6 December 2013 2014  →
5 (of 10) non-permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council
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United Nations Security Council membership after the elections
Elected Members before election

Flag of Morocco.svg  Morocco (Africa, Arab)
Flag of Togo.svg  Togo (Africa)
Flag of Guatemala.svg  Guatemala (LatAm&Car)
Flag of Pakistan.svg  Pakistan (Asia)
Flag of Azerbaijan.svg  Azerbaijan (E. Europe)

Contents

New Elected Members





The 2013 United Nations Security Council election was held on 17 October 2013 [1] during the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The Assembly elected Chad, Chile, Lithuania, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia for five non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 2014. [2] The following day, Saudi Arabia announced that it was declining the seat, accusing UNSC of using "double standards" and being unable to resolve important issues in the Middle East. [3] A second round of voting therefore took place on 6 December, [4] in which Jordan was elected to the Council in lieu of Saudi Arabia.

Sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly

The Sixty-eighth Session of the United Nations General Assembly opened on 17 September 2013. The President of the United Nations General Assembly was chosen from the GRULAC with Antigua and Barbuda's John William Ashe being the consensus candidate, thus bypassing the need for an election.

United Nations Intergovernmental organization

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.

United Nations General Assembly principal organ of the United 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.

Rules

The Security Council has 15 seats, filled by five permanent members and ten non-permanent members. Each year, half of the non-permanent members are elected for two-year terms. [5] [6] A sitting member may not immediately run for re-election. [7]

In accordance with the rules whereby the ten non-permanent UNSC seats rotate among the various regional blocs into which UN member states traditionally divide themselves for voting and representation purposes, [8] the five available seats are allocated as follows:

United Nations Regional Groups geopolitical regional groups of the UN

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.

United Nations geoscheme for Africa

The following is an alphabetical list of subregions in the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, used by the UN and maintained by the UNSD department for statistical purposes.

Morocco Country in North Africa

Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in the Maghreb region of North West Africa with an area of 710,850 km2 (274,460 sq mi). Its capital is Rabat, the largest city Casablanca. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Morocco claims the areas of Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, all of them under Spanish jurisdiction.

Togo country in Africa

Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. The sovereign state extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its capital Lomé is located. Togo covers 57,000 square kilometres, making it one of the smallest countries in Africa, with a population of approximately 7.6 million.

To be elected, a candidate must receive a two-thirds majority of those present and voting. If the vote is inconclusive after the first round, three rounds of restricted voting shall take place, followed by three rounds of unrestricted voting, and so on, until a result has been obtained. In restricted voting, only official candidates may be voted on, while in unrestricted voting, any member of the given regional group, with the exception of current Council members, may be voted on.

The five members are expected to serve on the Security Council for the 2014–15 period.

Candidates

African Group

Flag of Chad.svg  Chad [11] [12]
Flag of Nigeria.svg  Nigeria [11] [12]
Flag of The Gambia.svg  Gambia [12] — Withdrew [13]

Chad Country in central Africa

Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in north-central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west. It is the fifth largest country in Africa and the second-largest in Central Africa in terms of area.

Nigeria Federal republic in West Africa

The Federal Republic of Nigeria, commonly referred to as Nigeria, is a federal republic in West Africa, bordering Niger in the north, Chad in the northeast, Cameroon in the east, and Benin in the west. Its coast in the south is located on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The federation comprises 36 states and 1 Federal Capital Territory, where the capital, Abuja is located. Nigeria is officially a democratic secular country.

The Gambia country in West Africa

The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa that is almost entirely surrounded by Senegal with the exception of its western coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the smallest country within mainland Africa.

Latin American and Caribbean Group

Flag of Chile.svg  Chile [11] [12] [14]

Asia-Pacific group

An Arab state is due to take a seat on account of the custom of rotation of the unofficial "Arab seat" between the Arab states belonging to the African and Asian groups and the expiry of the term of the previous Arab member, Morocco, whose term expires in 2013.

Arab League organisation of Arab states

The Arab League, formally the League of Arab States, is a regional organization of Arab states in and around North Africa, the Horn of Africa and Arabia. It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Yemen joined as a member on 5 May 1945. Currently, the League has 22 members, but Syria's participation has been suspended since November 2011, as a consequence of government repression during the Syrian Civil War.

Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg  Saudi Arabia [11] [12] [15]
Flag of Jordan.svg  Jordan — Declared candidacy after Saudi Arabia declined its election to the Council [4]

Eastern European group

Flag of Georgia.svg  Georgia [11] — Withdrew on 30 April 2013 for diplomatic and financial reasons [16]
Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania [11] [12] [17]

Results

There were 191 secret ballots cast in each segment of the vote. [18]

African and Asia-Pacific Groups

Day 1

African and Asia-Pacific Groups election results [18]
MemberRound 1
Flag of Nigeria.svg  Nigeria 186
Flag of Chad.svg  Chad 184
Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg  Saudi Arabia 176
Flag of The Gambia.svg  Gambia 2
Flag of Senegal.svg  Senegal 2
Flag of Lebanon.svg  Lebanon 1
abstentions0
required majority128

Rejection

Following the vote, Saudi Arabia, despite winning, declined to take the seat citing the UNSC's "double standards" in being allegedly ineffective in regards to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, nuclear disarmament in the Middle East and putting an end to the Syrian civil war. [3] [19] This was the first time a state had rejected a Security Council seat. [20] Saudi Arabia's refusal of the seat surprised both United Nations diplomats and some observers inside the country, where the announcement of the election had been received favorably. [20] The Gulf Cooperation Council supported Saudi Arabia's bid. [21] In addition, Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan suggested a distancing of Saudi Arabia–United States relations as a result of the same issue over the Syrian civil war, amongst other reasons. [22] On 12 November, Saudi Arabia formally declined the seat, advising the Secretary-General that it "would not be in a position to take the seat on the Security Council to which it was elected." [23]

Day 2

A second vote was held on 6 December to fill the vacancy created by the rejection of Saudi Arabia to take the seat it was elected to. Prior to the vote, the General Assembly honoured Nelson Mandela, who had died the previous day. There were 185 ballot papers. [24]

African and Asia-Pacific Groups election results [24]
MemberRound 1
Flag of Jordan.svg  Jordan 178
Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg  Saudi Arabia 1
invalid ballots2
abstentions4
required majority120

Latin American and Caribbean Group

Latin American and Caribbean Group election results [18]
MemberRound 1
Flag of Chile.svg  Chile 186
abstentions5
required majority124

Eastern European Group

Eastern European Group election results [18]
MemberRound 1
Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania 187
Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia 1
abstentions2
invalid votes1
required majority126

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The Arab swing seat alternates every two years between the Asian and the African groups. [10]

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References

  1. ↑ "Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly: Report by the Secretary-General" (PDF). United Nations. 5 July 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  2. ↑ "Chad, Chile, Lithuania, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia elected to serve on UN Security Council". United Nations. 17 October 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  3. 1 2 "Saudi Arabia declines UN Security Council seat". Asharq Al-Awsat. 2013-10-18. Archived from the original on 2013-10-19. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  4. 1 2 "UN General Assembly sets Dec. 6 election to choose Jordan for 2-year Security Council seat". Montreal Gazette. 21 November 2013. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
  5. ↑ United Nations Security Council (2008), Repertoire of the practice of the Security Council, p. 178, retrieved 3 November 2011
  6. ↑ Conforti, Benedetto (2005), The law and practice of the United Nations, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, p. 61, retrieved 3 November 2011
  7. ↑ "Charter of the United Nations, Article 23". Un.org. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  8. ↑ Resolution 1991 A (XVIII), dated 1963-12-17, in force 31 August 1965. See also the notes accompanying Rules 142 to 144 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly and Item 114(a) (page 175) of UN Document A/66/100, Annotated preliminary list of items to be included in the provisional agenda of the sixty-sixth regular session of the General Assembly.
  9. ↑ "Asian group of nations at UN changes its name to Asia-Pacific group", Radio New Zealand International, 31 August 2011.
  10. ↑ "Special Research Report No. 4: Security Council Elections 2011". United National Security Council Report.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "First Timers Chad, Georgia, Lithuania and Saudi Arabia Among Those Vying for UNSC Seats in 2014–15". UN Tribune. 10 April 2013. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Security Council Elections 2013". Security Council Report. 25 September 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  13. ↑ Oluwarotimi, Abiodun (16 October 2013). "Security Council Poll: Nigeria Knows Fate Tomorrow". Leadership . Abuja, Nigeria. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  14. ↑ "La candidatura de Chile al Consejo de Seguridad y el proceso de La Haya". La Pr1mera. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  15. ↑ "Saudi Arabia scheduled to be UNSC non-permanent member for 2014–15". Kuwait New Agency. 18 October 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  16. ↑ "Georgia will not nominate its candidacy for non-permanent members of UN Security Council by 2014". Trend. 30 April 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  17. ↑ "Address of H.E. Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania, at the United Nations General Assembly Session in New York". 22 September 2011. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  18. 1 2 3 4 "General Assembly Elects Chad, Chile, Lithuania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia As Non-Permanent Members of Security Council: New Candidates Sail Through After Single Ballot". United Nations. 17 October 2013. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
  19. ↑ McDowall, Angus (16 October 2013). "Saudi Arabia, angered over Mideast, declines Security Council seat". Retuers.
  20. 1 2 ALAN COWELL, RICK GLADSTONE and ROBERT F. WORTH (18 October 2013). "Saudi Arabia Rejects Security Council Seat". The New York Times.
  21. ↑ "GCC backs Saudi Arabia rejection of UN seat - Middle East". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  22. ↑ "Saudi to reassess relations with US: report - Middle East". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  23. ↑ United Nations, General Assembly, Letter dated 12 November 2013 from the Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General, A/68/599 (14 November 2013), available from undocs.org/A/68/599
  24. 1 2 "General Assembly elects Jordan as non-permamnent Security Council member, appoints Morocco to Economic and Social Council". United Nations Department of Public Information, News and Media Division, New York. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
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