Cuba Slams UN Security Council´s Lack of Openness

United Nations - Cuba has today called for a more transparent and democratic Security Council fulfills the mandate of the UN Charter to represent all member states in peacekeeping matters.
At a session in the UN General Assembly devoted to dealing with 15-member body´s work, Cuba's Permanent Representative, Ana Silvia Rodriguez, called for urgent changes in the Security Council's working methods in order to ensure a real participation of all its members in the work and the decision-making process.
'Cuba once again proposes that closed-door consultations be the exception; that its membership be extended in two categories, permanent and non-permanent, with no selective or discriminatory criteria, in order to rectify the insufficient representation of developing countries in such a body; and that the obsolete and antidemocratic right of veto disappears,' she said.
Rodriguez also called for the formalization of the standing orders of UN Security Council, which has provisionally remained for over 70 years.
The Cuban official also regretted that, like the previous ones, the document is 'a simple descriptive summary of the meetings, activities and decisions'.
Most UN member States have reiterated the need for a comprehensive and analytic annual report on the work of this body, she said.
In her speech, Ana Silvia asked for how long the international community will have to wait for 'this formal and non-substantive procedure to become an exercise of true accountability to the General Assembly.'
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