The Practice of Engagement between by NGOs and the UNSC

There is a well recognized practice of non-governmental organizations providing information and analysis to members of the Security Council and engaging with them either informally or semi-formally on Security Council matters.  

In 1998, Ambassador Antonio Monteiro of Portugal, in presenting the report of the Security Council to the UN General Assembly, noted that:

“…the Council, in its decisions, has appealed frequently to NGOs, acknowledging, therefore, the importance of their action in the prevention of conflicts and in the peace-building efforts of the United Nations. The importance of these organizations in preventing illicit arms trafficking by helping Security Council Sanctions Committees to monitor violations of arms embargoes has also been recognized recently by the Council in its resolution II96… We do not see the reason why the Council should keep itself closed to the important source of information and assistance that these organizations represent. It should, in fact, listen carefully to them, encourage and protect their action towards the prevention and resolution of international conflicts.”

Informally, NGOs including IALANA have been in contact with UN Security Council members through private meetings, submission of documents and letters, inviting UNSC members to brief public meetings, and other means. IALANA is a member of the NGO Working Group on the UN Security Council which has been active since 1997, holding on average 40 meetings per year with UN Security Council representatives.

IALANA has submitted documents to UN Security Council members directly relating to the work of the UN Security Council. These include:

• An International Appeal of Jurists and Lawyers on the Illegality of the Preventive Use of Force in early 1993 prior to a UN Security Council discussion on whether to authorize the use of force against Iraq for suspected possession of weapons of mass destruction;
• A paper on Recommended UN Security Council Actions to Advance Nuclear Disarmament, in 2009 prior to the UN Security Council Session on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament hosted by US President Obama.

While it is true that the UN Charter does not provide the same level of recognition for NGOs with respect to the Security Council as it does for the Economic and Social Council, the Security Council itself has developed a mechanism for semi-formal engagement between NGOs and Security Council members. Initiated in 1992 by Ambassador Diego Arria of Venezuela, the “Arria Formula” enables a member of the Council to invite other Council members to an informal meeting, held outside of the Council chambers and chaired by the inviting member. The meeting is called for the purpose of a briefing given by one or more persons, considered as expert in a matter of concern to the Council.

According to James Paul, Vice Chair of the NGO Working Group on the UN Security Council and Executive Director of the Global Policy Forum, “Arria Formula meetings take place virtually every month, sometimes more than once. Attendance is typically at a very high level — the permanent representative or deputy. Only rarely do individual members fail to attend. The meetings are announced by the Council president at the beginning of each month or whenever organized, as part of the regular Council schedule. And the meetings are provided with full interpretation by the Secretariat. No Council meetings or consultations are ever scheduled at a time when the Arria Formula meetings take place.”

On June 11, 2010, the South Korean NGO People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) submitted a report to the members of the United Nations Security Council, addressing their opinions and positions on the sinking on March 26, 2010 of the South Korean Navy Warship Cheonan.  PSPD has been condemned by the government of South Korea for this action. It would appear to us that PSPD, in sending the report, was doing no more than exercising a right of any NGO to submit information to UN Security Council members. Each UN Security Council member has the absolute freedom to weigh up the relative merits of such information along with other information they receive, either formally or informally, on the issue.