United Nations Security Council

So even though the UN established what could have served as institutions capable of creating the framework conditions for peacemaking, it was severely undermined by the exigencies of Machiavellian superpower politics during the Cold War. The self- interested agendas and cynical actions of the five permanent members of the Security Council have transformed it into a net contributor to global insecurity, as evidenced by the effect worldwide of the Russian- instigated crisis in Ukraine. The systemic failure of the council suggests the need for an urgent transformation of the international system.

Since the idea of transforming the global system was muted after the end of the Cold War, in the early 1990s, and after close to three decades of the rhetoric of restructuring, the fallacy of UN reform has become a self- evident truth. Powerful countries in the UN system, in particular the five permanent members, continue to dangle the perpetual promise of reform, which they have no intention of honouring. Given the reality of the paralysis of the council and the indefinite postponement of UN reform, the world needs to dismantle it and establish a process for the radical transformation of the international system and the articulation of a new global democratic architecture, which will include a new global infrastructure for mediation, peacemaking and peacebuilding. There is a pathway for members of the UN General Assembly to embark on a UN Charter review process that can lay the foundation for the establishment of this new global democratic dispensation. Based on ideas that have been promoted by the World Federalist Movement for close to half a century, the time has come to think about creating a new structure for global governance. Such a structure would be premised on a fundamental shift away from privileging the nation- state in global affairs. A newly established World Federation of Nations would feasibly include the following organs: World Parliament, Council of

Supra- nations, Assembly of Nationstates, Committee of Sub- national Groups, Global Forum of NGOs, Global Committee of Unions and Transnational Corporations, a Global Court of Justice and an International Security Force. The founders of the UN recognised that the moment would arrive when it became imperative to transform the organisation and included a practical mechanism to review the body’s Charter. Specifically, Article 109 of the UN Charter provides for a “General Conference of the Members for the purpose of reviewing the present Charter”. According to Article 109, of the UN Charter, a Charter Review Conference could be convened at a specific date and place if it is approved by “a two- thirds vote of the members of the General Assembly and by a vote of any nine members of the Security Council”. Therefore in practice, there are no major obstacles to convening a Charter Review Conference apart from securing the necessary percentages described above. In addition, the decision- making process at such a Charter Review Conference would be relatively democratic in the sense that “each member of the United Nations shall have one vote in the conference”. This Charter Review Conference could be initiated through a process of mobilising the will of two- thirds of the General Assembly and nine members of the Security Council. The latter provision means that the five permanent members cannot veto any proposed UN Charter Review Conference. Such a Charter Review Conference could adopt a recommendation to substantially alter the UN Charter and introduce new provisions including a change in the name of the institution to, for example, the World Federation of Nations. The adoption of these new recommendations could be on the basis of a two- thirds vote of the conference and each member of the UN General Assembly would have one vote.

There are precedents for Charter Review processes leading to the establishment of new international organisations, notably the Organisation of

African Unity’s transformation into the African Union, initiated by a meeting of Heads of State and Government in 1999. Therefore, a UN Charter Review Conference could lead to the formation of the World Federation of Nations through broad- based and inclusive consultations that include governments, civil society, business, trade unions, and academics.

The trajectory of the UN Security Council’s dysfunctionality and systemic failure created the conditions that rendered it ineffective in the face of the 2022 Russia- Ukraine crisis. This crisis strengthens the case for the dismantling and radical overhaul of the UN Security Council as an institutional framework.

The UN began with only 51 members and now includes 193 countries. In a similar fashion, a new global democratic system can begin with a small coalition of like- minded states, and as the UN system withers away, an institution fit for purpose will emerge to address the challenges that humanity faces in the 21st century.(