11 Apr 2014
Mr Chair,
1 I thank you for convening this fourth informal meeting of the 10th round of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council Reform.
2 Reform of the working methods of the current Security Council and those of a future enlarged Council are critical to small states like Singapore. Not only is it challenging for small states to be elected as
non-permanent members in the current Council, we are also not likely to obtain a permanent seat in a reformed Security Council. As such, enhancing the transparency and accountability of the Security Council to the General Assembly is particularly important for small states.
3 Discussions on the working methods of a future reformed Council in the IGN process should not be an obstacle to improvements in the practices of the current Council. Such improvements do not require UN Charter amendments and will benefit the wider UN membership regardless of the progress of the IGN. We welcome the Council’s adoption of Presidential Notes aimed at improving its practices. However, the implementation of the proposals in the series of Presidential Notes since 2010 has been slow, limited and varies from Presidency to Presidency of the Council. Some of them have also been implemented with an eye to the “letter” rather than the “spirit” of the proposals. Our statement in the Security Council Open Debate on Working Methods last October listed several examples.
4 Most notably, we urge the permanent members to seriously consider refraining from using the veto when the Council decides on action aimed at preventing or ending genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. We support the initiative by France for a code of conduct among the P5 on the use of the veto and we look forward to the Ministerial meeting it is convening in September on the proposal. We reiterate our call for the Permanent Members to explain to the General Assembly their reasons for using their veto, or intention to do so, with regard to its consistency with the principles and purposes of the UN Charter, the mandate of the Security Council and international law.
4 Since this is the first time we are speaking in this series of informal meetings, I would like to say that we support the enlargement of the Council in both categories of membership to enhance regional representation, especially of Africa. However, we do not support the extension of the veto to new permanent members of the Council. The overall size and expansion of membership must be balanced with the need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Council.
5 We hope that progress will be made in this 10th round of the IGN. We look forward to the Chair’s summary and assessment of the discussions in this series of informal meetings. Perhaps it can catalyse substantive negotiations on genuine and long-lasting reform of the Council.
Thank you, Mr Chair.
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