Chapter 8:   SUBSIDIARY BODIES

Section 2:   Peacebuilding Commission

 

Appointing two elected Council members to the PBC Organizational Committee for 2018

 

On 30 January 2018, the Security Council President (Kazakhstan) wrote a letter informing the Secretary-General that the Council had agreed on the selection of Bolivia and Côte d’Ivoire as the two elected Security Council members which would participate in the Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) in 2018 (S/2018/75).

 

The book (pages 474-476) recalls that both the General Assembly and the Security Council resolutions establishing the PBC decided that seven seats on the Commission’s Organizational Committee would be accorded to “Seven members of the Security Council, including permanent members, selected according to rules and procedures decided by the Council”.  In a second resolution, 1646 (2005), adopted the same day, the Security Council decided that its permanent members shall be members of the Organizational Committee.  Resolution 1646 (2005) thus leaves two seats on the Organizational Committee to be accorded to elected members of the Council. 

 

As detailed in the book, the designation by the Security Council of its first two elected members to sit on the Organizational Committee was problematic.  The Council decided to select Denmark and Tanzania, in recognition of the fact that those two countries had served as the Co-Chairs of the informal consultations held in the Assembly to negotiate the creation of the PBC.  However, the Latin American and Caribbean States Group (GRULAC) did not agree that the two elected Council members serving on the Organizational Committee should be drawn from the two regional groups reflected in the selection of Denmark and Tanzania.  In fact, the GRULAC countries on the Security Council set a condition for accepting the appointment of Denmark and Tanzania:  They insisted that the Council President’s letter informing the Secretary-General of the selection also state that the Council members had taken note of the position expressed by Argentina, and supported by Peru, that a member of GRULAC should be considered for selection upon the expiration of the terms of Denmark and Tanzania (S/2006/25).

 

In every succeeding year, the Council has selected an elected Council member from GRULAC to serve on the Organizational Committee, except in 2008.  That year, one of the two members selected was Belgium, from the Western European and Other States Group (WEOG).  A Council member from the African Group has consistently been selected for the Organizational Committee every year. 

 

The Africa Group and GRULAC are the two UN regional groups which are not represented among the permanent members of the Security Council.  The Council’s permanent members belong to the regional groups of Asia-Pacific (China), Eastern Europe (Russian Federation), and WEOG (France, United Kingdom, and United States).  Therefore, selecting one elected member from the Africa Group and one from GRULAC for the seats allocated to the Security Council on the PBC Organizational Committee has meant that in every year except 2006 and 2008, all regional groups have been represented among the seven members of the Organizational Committee drawn from the Security Council. 

 

The two elected members selected by the Council to serve on the PBC Organizational Committee since it took up its functions are as follows:

 

2018:  Bolivia and Côte d’Ivoire

2017:  Senegal and Uruguay

2016:  Angola and Venezuela

2015:  Chad and Chile

2014:  Argentina and Chad

2013:  Guatemala and Morocco

2012:  Colombia and Morocco

2011:  Colombia and Gabon

2010:  Gabon and Mexico

2009:  Burkina Faso and Mexico

2008:  Belgium and South Africa

2007:  Panama and South Africa

2006:  Denmark and Tanzania

 

The earliest possible selection process by the Security Council is advantageous in light of the fact that both the General Assembly and Council resolutions establishing the PBC require that in the Assembly’s selection process, “due consideration” be given to “representation from all regional groups in the overall composition of the Committee”.  For this reason, the Assembly normally waits for the official results of the selection process in other organs and groups, including the Security Council, to be made known before initiating its own selection process. 

 

(This update supplements pages 475 to 476 of the book.)

 

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