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.
