G4 states drop veto proposal for new UN Security Council members News
G4 states drop veto proposal for new UN Security Council members

[JURIST] In a move to gain support for a draft UN reform resolution introduced last month [JURIST report], Germany, Japan, Brazil and India – the so-called G4 group – have dropped their proposal to give veto power to any new permanent Council members. Their plan would still expand the current Council, which consists of 5 permanent members and 10 rotating members, from 15 to 25. Under the proposal, 6 new permanent seats would be added, and 4 rotating seats. The resolution requires a two-thirds vote from the General Assembly for approval. The pullback on the veto power comes a month after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said publicly that expecting any of the 5 permanent Security Council states to endorse reforms that would give other nations the same veto powers they already enjoyed would be "utopian" [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

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