Brazil assumes presidency of UN Security Council

Brazil took the presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a one-month term on Sunday. Chief among the topics to be defended by the country is the importance of bilateral, regional, and multilateral institutions to prevent, resolve, and mediate conflicts.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira will chair a hearing on the subject on October 20.

“This month we’re going to bring up the idea that the Security Council should deal more extensively with the instruments that the United Nations, the countries, and regional organizations face in preventing conflicts rather than just dealing with them after they arise, in a bid to step up bilateral, regional, and multilateral diplomacy to stop conflicts from breaking out,” explained the Secretary for Multilateral and Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Ambassador Carlos Márcio Cozendey, in an interview on Friday (Sep. 29).

As an example, he cited the Treaty of Tlatelolco, signed in 1967 by 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries to guarantee the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region.

Other issues, he went on to say, will be addressed over the course of the month during Brazil’s term as president of the Security Council: the possible mission to support the security forces in Haiti, the maintenance of the UN mission overseeing peace negotiations in Colombia, and possibly issues regarding the war between Ukraine and Russia.

Reform

Established after the Second World War in 1948 to ensure the preservation of international peace and security, the UN Security Council has five permanent members—China, the US, France, the UK, and Russia—plus 10 non-permanent members with two-year terms.

The rotating seats are currently held by Brazil, Albania, Ecuador, the United Arab Emirates, Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, and Switzerland. Their mandate runs until December.

This is the second time in the current two-year span that Brazil has chaired the body—the first was in July 2022. This is Brazil’s 11th mandate since the council was created.

The five permanent members of the council have veto power, meaning they can block resolutions for reasons linked to their own interests.

President Lula has been advocating an overhaul in global governance institutions and is demanding a permanent seat on the Security Council for Brazil, as well as for South Africa and India. In his view, more international bodies could, for example, impose penalties on nations that fail to meet their climate commitments and boost the fight against inequalities across the world.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on the October 19th, Lula argued that the principle of global multilateralism—which is founded on sovereign equality between nations—has been eroded and that the UN security body “has been progressively losing its credibility.”