Current UN structures were designed for bygone era: India

United Nations:  Continuing to push for reform and expansion of the UN Security Council, India has said that the current structures of the United Nations were designed for a bygone era by a handful of nation states.

Yedla Umasankar, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, told a UN General Assembly committee that effective multilateralism and international rule of law require that the global governance structures should reflect contemporary realities.

“For retaining legitimacy and effectiveness, fundamental reform of these structures, especially the Security Council is needed,” he said yesterday while participating in a debate on “rule of law at the national and international levels”. India along with Brazil, Germany and Japan have been pushing for the expansion of the UN Security Council.

Observing that laws do not remain static, Umasankar said they continue to evolve according to changing circumstances, often brought forth by changes in society and prevailing technologies. “Changes also leave many old laws and regulations redundant. The Indian constitution, adopted seven decades ago, has seen over 100 amendments,” he said.

Umasankar said the current United Nations (UN) structures were designed for a bygone era by a mere handful of nation states. India rued that there were areas where the UN had not been able to develop international rule of law to its serious collective disadvantage.

The rise in terrorism is one such alarming concern that impacts all and requires effective international collaboration. However, law making on this issue continues to falter in view of narrow geopolitical interests, Umasankar said.

Ironically, often states hide behind legal concepts, designed for different contexts, to stop progress on this vital issue, including here at the UN in the context of a draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, he said. The issue continues to remain unaddressed satisfactorily even at the Security Council Sanctions Committee, he added.

Participating in the debate, Mahmoud Saikal, Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the UN, said rule of law was fundamentally imperative for a secure international landscape.