Samenvatting

After the failure of the League of Nations after World War I, the Allied powers (the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union) came together to form a new international organization – the United Nations - that could save future generations from war and the atrocities experienced during that war. This organization officially came into existence in 1945 and, through its Charter, gave the Security Council the primary responsibility of guaranteeing the maintenance of international peace and security by acting decisively to prevent and remove international threats.
Nowadays, the geopolitical realities and the challenges and threats to international security and peace have changed, as well as the distribution of power among its members; however, the Security Council has done very little to adapt to these changes. This has resulted in ineffective and inefficient Council’s actions as can be seen in the failures in Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, or Rwanda. As a result, the Security Council has received many criticisms by different scholars, member states, or non-governmental organizations. Among the most popular of these criticisms are worthy to mention the criticisms against the veto rights and the political interests of the permanent members; the inefficiency of the United Nations’ conflict management capacity; the failures in the prosecutions of violations of Security Council’s resolutions; the allegations of bias against African member states, as they are the only countries referred to the International Court by the Council; and the absence of participation and representation in the Council.
To tackle these problems, several well-known international organizations, internationally recognized scholars, and member states have called for an institutional reform of the Council, and have proposed several reform proposals. These have called for the improvement of the Council’s management; the need of more transparency and accountability; the extension of member states’ participation and representation; and the complete interaction with NGOs. However, the veto power has been the most controversial of all the reform proposals as it has shown how the permanent members use it for their own interests, rather than to promote global security.
Nevertheless, the majority of these changes are unlikely to happen as they need to be ratified by two-thirds of member states and the affirmative vote of all permanent members. On the other hand, although in theory it seems that not much has been done by the Security Council to improve its efficiency and effectiveness, the reality is different. Many changes in transparency, accessibility, inclusiveness and support have been achieved in the past decades; the Council has become more transparent, accessible and inclusive as it is not as secretive as it was in the past.