Ambassador Rodier,
Thank you for contacting the General Secretary's office regarding this important matter. During the
General Secretary's Mission to Lead Recovery Efforts at World Congress Offices in Istalia, it falls to me as Deputy General Secretary to provide support to delegations and Member States for all matters pertaining to normal operations here at the Security Council and at the General Assembly. That includes communicating with delegations regarding Security Council procedures like that outlined in the
General Secretary's Memorandum on Voting Procedures.
I personally took part in the decision-making process preceding publication of the General Secretary's Memorandum, and I am therefore able to share with Your Excellency that the General Secretary shared Your Excellency's concerns regarding the 3.5 year (OOC: 7 real-time days) voting period and that he too personally preferred a 1.5 year (OOC: 3 real-time days) voting period. However, the General Secretary's final decision on the voting period ultimately rested on the current practice and historical precedents of Security Council deliberations. Specifically, the General Secretary observed that Security Council Resolutions have tended to be debated over fairly long periods throughout World Congress history, and that Resolution authors have often taken significantly longer than 1.5 years to gather the requisite three votes for passage of Resolutions, and finally that delegations have often taken 3.5 years or longer to travel to Security Council chambers to cast their votes. The General Secretary therefore took the judgement that while a less protracted voting period would allow the Security Council to process business more quickly and efficiently, such a shorter voting period was unlikely to be adhered to by Members of the Council, especially when imposed by the Secretariat, and would therefore likely result in less Security Council business being completed in total rather than more.
However, in anticipation that some Member Nations might advocate a shorter voting period, the General Secretary issued an important Rule in his
Implementation and Regulation Orders which were issued to the Secretariat in conjunction with the publication of the underlying Memorandum. The relevant Rule reads in part:
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4. However, the Memorandum's Voting Period should at all times be understood as a maximum allowable time. Security Council Members may accordingly take advantage of Motions to Proceed to shorten deliberations or draft and pass Resolutions mandating a shorter Voting Period. Any such Resolutions, if successfully passed, shall be fully adhered to and implemented by the Secretariat if at all practical, and the present Memorandum shall be amended accordingly. However, the Secretariat is directed to exercise great care that maximal effort is expended to include all Security Council Members in any deliberations regarding a reduced Voting Period.
With this
Implementation and Regulation Order in mind, I would therefore urge Your Excellency to explore the possibility of crafting a Member State initiative to reduce the voting period in deliberation and conjunction with Your Excellency's fellow Security Council Members.
Most Respectfully,
/s/Safia Sidi
World Congress Deputy General Secretary