Türkiye’s Reform Vision For A Fairer World
The world is bigger than five
Türkiye’s Reform Vision For A Fairer World
Türkiye advocates for a UN reform in line with current conditions for a fairer world to protect all citizens' right to life and to ensure the access of states in developing or disadvantaged regions to the world's resources, security opportunities, and the right to use their own resources against exploitation on equal terms without being subject the hegemony of the five permanent members.
Our solution proposal is the adoption of a perspective that is based on the statement "The world is bigger than five" and focuses on restructuring the UN Security Council. The abolition of the veto power is the first step toward UN reform. A new UN should then be built on comprehensive and principled proposals. This will ensure that all countries worldwide can/will participate in this critical decision-making mechanism.
It has been proposed to increase the total number of UNSC members to twenty-five by adding only ten new non-permanent members. Introducing the majority rule to the decision-making system is one of the proposals advocated for a fairer world.
The statement "The World is Bigger than Five" expresses that the world is much bigger than the five permanent countries that want to direct the world in line with their own interests and prevent the formation of a fair system.
At the same time, Türkiye, in search of a fairer system, calls for the UN Security Council to be restructured and undergo a radical change to have a fairer representation structure.
Although the UN describes itself as "a global organization that seeks to provide justice and security, economic development and social equality to all countries", it is ineffective in fulfilling its requirements.
Our principle is to put forward and defend a revolutionary position that will radically change the privilege provided by the veto power, stating emphatically that the new dynamics of the current global system make it impossible to continue with the old order. In the pursuit of common peace, building peace in a world where the powerful are "right" is impossible. The world that Türkiye defends with the statement "The World is Bigger Than Five" is one where the righteous are powerful. With famines, wars, occupations, climate changes, and mass migrations increasing the need for building a new order in accordance with the realities of the new world, it is imperative to reduce the powers of the Security Council and increase the powers of the General Assembly for a fairer and more effective United Nations. At this point, the majority of the world should agree on the following statement: "The world is bigger than five." Justice must be the first principle. After all, any reform plan must be centered around the principle of justice. Justice is the shared value of all communities. All social and political systems, irrespective of culture, civilization or religion, have strived to create an order with justice at its core. All ancient civilizations built various systems that aimed to put justice first as they developed their own social and political orders. Likewise, the UN reform must be rooted in a set of principles, centered around justice. Designing the new reform plan to address injustice, too, will enable reforms to serve their intended purpose. Yet the presence of a counterintuitive body, like the UN Security Council, makes it effectively impossible to deliver justice. In this regard, a new approach that blends security and justice must be among the core principles of the reform process. Equality, in turn, ought to complement the principle of justice. As such, equality is the second core principle of the philosophy of reform. To address global problems, not to mention disagreements among member states, the UN must treat each member state as equals as a first step. In the absence of equality, there can be no global justice. No nation that lacks the necessary means to defend itself in the international arena can be defended against more powerful players without the principle of equality. As the UN Charter clearly outlines, the international system is rooted in the principle of the sovereign equality of nations.
The UNSC does not reflect today's balance of power and geopolitical realities. Reforming the UNSC to be a democratic, representative, effective and responsible body is essential for the world peace. Each member state should have equal voting rights and sanction power, and the Security Council should become a more equal, fair, adequately representative, effective and responsible body.
Yet the Charter also granted the veto power, a privilege, to the most powerful members of the Security Council, making it impossible for the principle of equality to apply. To make matters worse, the Security Council has positioned itself above the member states by failing to act on their behalf – thus allowing its permanent members to mount pressure on the rest.
Another important principle of the new reform process is transparency. Transparency is about where and how decisions are made – and by whom. Indeed, the decisions reached by the UN Security Council are known to the states that participate in the decision-making process. Yet the remaining member states are deprived of such knowledge. How decisions about the fate of nations are made are vitally important for the UN’s credibility. In recent years, studies have shown that the international community has remarkably low confidence in the UN’s ability to perform its tasks. It is necessary to acknowledge that the root cause of that problem is the lack of transparency.
In addition to transparency, an effective reform process must be rooted in the principle of accountability. An international organization like the United Nations, which is equipped with necessary mechanisms to tackle each and every global issue, ought to be accountable. Accountability rests on three pillars: Primarily, the UN, which needs to manage crises, prevent conflict and preserve peace, must build a system of accountability for the various bodies under its roof, which are related to those processes. In other words, the UN must be held accountable for its failure to respond to fresh crises in due time.
Last but not least, the notion of prevention must be restored as one of the principles that embody the spirit of a UN reform. Provided that the UN was established to promote global peace and to uphold stability, it is necessary to develop a doctrine of prevention and to put in place practical mechanisms to facilitate its implementation.