Chapter 8:   SUBSIDIARY BODIES

Section 2:   Peacebuilding Commission

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Council names Dominican Republic, Niger to PBC Organizational Committee, preserving geographic balance

 

On 28 January 2020, the Security Council President (Viet Nam) informed the Secretary-General that the Council had selected the Dominican Republic and Niger as the two elected Council members to sit on the Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) in 2020 (S/2020/76).

 

The book (pages 474-476) recalls that the resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council 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”.  By a second resolution, 1646 (2005), adopted the same day, the Security Council decided that all five of its permanent members would sit on the Organizational Committee.  Resolution 1646 (2005) thus leaves two seats on the Organizational Committee to be accorded to Council’s elected members. 

 

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

 

2020:  Dominican Republic and Niger

2019:  Côte d’Ivoire and Peru

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

 

As detailed in the book, the Security Council’s designation of its first two elected members to sit on the Organizational Committee was problematic.  The Council selected 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.  

 

The Latin American and Caribbean States Group (GRULAC), however, 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 P5.*  Therefore, selecting one elected member each from the Africa Group and GRULAC for the seats allocated to the Security Council on the Organizational Committee has meant that in every year except 2006 and 2008, all regional groups have been represented among the seven members of the Committee drawn from the Security Council. 

 

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

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* The P5 belong to the regional groups of Asia-Pacific (China), Eastern Europe (Russian Federation), and WEOG (France, United Kingdom and United States).