.png)
While addressing the General Assembly today, the Maldives called for urgent and pressing reform of the UN Security Council in order to ensure broader and equitable representation of the Council. The Maldives has always maintained that the credibility and legitimacy of the Security Council must be ensured through broader and more equitable representation of UN member States in its composition. "As it is not, the membership of the Security Council reflects a flawed representation of the world today where its smaller members are left behind", the Maldives noted.
Further noting that, "we, the Small Island Developing States have proven ourselves to be integral members of the international community, having taken important responsibilities in promoting peace and security on the international stage", the Maldives called for a designation of a SIDS specific seat in the UN Security Council
The Maldives has always been a strong advocator for the inclusion of a SIDS specific seat at the Security Council. The Small Island Developing States (SIDS) at Council remains vastly underrepresented. Over the past quarter century, only six SIDS have served on the Council, out of the 125 elected members during that period. SIDS continue to face growing security concerns from trans-national organized crime, to piracy, to the effects of climate change. The Maldives, in its national capacity and as the Chair of Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), have been raising these issues at various international platforms, more recently at the "Arria formula" meeting of the Security Council on the "security dimensions of climate change" in 2013 and the Open Debate on the security concerns of Small Island Developing States in July of this year.
The statement was delivered by Ms. Midhfa Naeem, Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Maldives to the UN.
