End of Brazil’s 2010-2011 term at the United Nations Security Council

Brazil’s tenth term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) expires on 31 December 2011. Alongside Japan, Brazil is the State that has served more elected terms in the UNSC.

The 2010-2011 biennium was intense and challenging. The UNSC was called to act in conflicts, crisis and political processes of great importance and complexity, such as the earthquake in Haiti; the Iranian nuclear program; grave military incidents in the Korean Peninsula; the political and security stabilization in Somalia; the electoral crisis in Côte d’Ivoire; the conflict in Libya and the international military action in the country; the popular protests in Syria; the independence of South Sudan; the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa; the Palestinian issue; among many others. In several occasions, the UNSC had to respond firmly to systematic and eneralized violence against unprotected civilians, including women and children.

With regard to these issues in the agenda of the Security Council and others, Brazil reaffirmed its diplomatic identity as a peace-loving country, strongly committed to preventive diplomacy, to the settlement of tensions and crises though dialogue, to the respect to the international law and to the terms of the UNSC decisions, and to the promotion and protection of human rights. At the same time independent and cooperative, with firm convictions and open to dialogue with everyone, Brazil sought to actively contribute to the construction of political consensus that would allow the UNSC to affirm its authority, without prejudice to the effectiveness and relevance of its decisions.

In the biennium now coming to an end, Brazil encouraged reflection within the Security Council and promoted concepts that might improve that organ’s actions. Most important among them are the interdependence between security and development as essential elements of sustainable peace, in situations marked by institutional, economic and social vulnerabilities – an issue addressed at an Open Debate during our UNSC Presidency, last February – and the “responsibility while protecting”. This concept is a much needed political call for the prevention of conflicts and for moderation when deciding on the recourse to force and when managing the use of force, so as to avoid that such protection entail further waves of violence and instability, with significant human, political and material costs, not to mention the weakening of the very legitimacy of the collective security system. Brazil also insisted upon the need to coordinate – whenever and however possible – the peacekeeping and peacebuilding activities, by seeking to increase the interaction between the Security Council and its Peacebuilding Commission (PBC). Brazil has had constant and active presence in this Commission, as the country that chairs the PCB Country-Specific Configuration for Guinea-Bissau.

As a UNSC non-permanent member, Brazil’s efforts were also toward steering the organ to provide effective attention and support to Haiti; Africa, particularly Guinea-Bissau, and Timor-Leste.

During its mandate, especially when holding the UNSC Presidency, Brazil also strived to contribute toward a more participative and transparent management of the Council, by carrying out permanent consultations among all members of the organ on the approach to the issues in the agenda; being constantly available to all Member States; carrying out interactive debates with the PBC; holding an informative session for non-members of the Council about UNSC activities during the Brazilian Presidency, among other initiatives.

In 2011, alongside Brazil, all countries in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa) and IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) fora were represented in the UNSC, which contributed to the debate of the major issues in the Security Council’s agenda, added a healthy political diversity to the organ and strengthened diplomatic dialogue among these countries, particularly within IBSA, as a grouping of large multiracial democracies in developing countries. The intense dialogue among them will be maintained throughout 2012, despite Brazil no longer taking part in the UNSC.

The Brazilian Government is firmly convinced that taking part in the Security Council for the 2010-2011 term was a significant contribution to further consolidate Brazil’s engagement in the promotion of peace and the strengthening of multilateralism, from a humanistic and democratic approach to international relations.