The Security Council:  Of Kosovo and Iran

By: Julieta Brito Devoto

The atmosphere in the SC room was, perhaps, the most relaxed of all the committees. While discussing the resolutions, the delegates made jokes and laughed. The Chairs had to make the delegates “come to order.”

Two resolutions were discussed today. The first one was left from the previous day’s discussion. It had to do with “the question of Kosovo’s governance and right to self-determination.”  The resolution had been submitted by the Russian Federation and Greece, and it fully recommended that Kosovo stay as a province of Serbia.

The delegation of the United Sates stated that the resolution did not solve any problems, and therefore it had no real value.

The delegation of France said that the independence or dependence of Kosovo had nothing to do with the two countries who submitted the resolution: it is an issue that concerns only Albania, Serbia, and Kosovo. Thus, France did not support the resolution.

The debate continued in this manner, with many countries presenting arguments against the resolution, while and the delegations of Russia and Greece tried to defend it.

In the end, the resolution failed because the arguments against were too strong.

The second resolution, submitted by France and the UK, concerned the question of Iran and its nuclear energy program,

Again there was some difficulty getting down to business in between jokes, laughter, and interruptions. At one point, all the delegates and the Chairs stood up and went to the window to see the smoke that was coming out of an adjacent building, thinking it was on fire—in the end, a false alarm.

When the debate got going, the process went faster of discussion moved along more rapidly than other debates, mainly because the resolution had many mistakes in it and therefore much of the discussion had to do with the corrections made by the debating countries.

For example, the delegation of China came out against the resolution. The Chinese pointed out that France and the UK could not call upon the creation of an international coalition formed by Holland and others because that country Holland does not exist. A coalition could be created if the name Holland was changed to the Netherlands.

Then, China said that a country can not be classified as “stubborn” and that the resolution needed re-wording. France answered back by saying that China was being stubborn.

Denmark wanted to talk against the resolution but couldn’t because it was one of the co-submitters. The delegate from Denmark then spoke as if he were the delegate from China. Then, the real delegate for China stood up and said that what had just been said could not be considered by the assembly because he was the real delegate from China and that his identity had been stolen.

In the end, the Chairs called the delegates to vote “by clauses,” a phrase which means that the Chair would read the resolution clause by clause and that the delegates would decide which ones would stay and which ones would be eliminated. The passage or the failure of each clause is determined by a simple majority.

The Security Council proceeded to vote “by clauses,” and vetoed all the clauses but two: numbers five and nine.

The resolution passed with two valid clauses.

After this procedure, the Chairs told the delegates that after lunch, they would have  to prepare their speeches for the Closing Ceremony where the Emergency Issue would also be dealt with.