'Non-representative' UNSC lacks legitimacy: India

United Nations: India has told the UN that its top organ, the Security Council, "uniquely" lacks the legitimacy to counsel nations on merits of political inclusiveness due to its non-representative character.

"The imperative of political inclusion should not become an imposition of prescriptions on the affected population by the Security Council," Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the UN Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi said in a Council debate on 'Inclusive development for the maintenance of international peace and security' here yesterday.

He said that a a holistic vision of international security based on the interdependence of the three pillars of the UN system - peace and security, development and human rights - does not ipso facto mean that the Security Council should arrogate to itself all these functions.

The focus should be not on how the Security Council should embrace the notion of interdependence of the three pillars to safeguard international security, but how the UN system as a whole should do so.

"In any case, while the mandate of the Security Council is to act on behalf of the wider membership, it uniquely lacks the legitimacy, on account of its non-representative character, to counsel States on the merits of political inclusiveness," he added.

Bishnoi said that just because security has many dimensions, it does not mean that the Security Council must fit itself into all of them.

He noted that there are separate organs within the UN system tasked to manage the three pillars.

"Synergy and complementarity need to be our watchwords, not duplication and co-option," he said.

On the issues of inclusive development, Bishnoi said the Security Council should not encroach on the mandate of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council.