Background Guide

History of the United Nations Security Council

The United Nations (UN) Security Council (SC) is one of six main bodies within the UN System. Defined by  Article 24 of the June 26, 1945 United Nations Charter, the SC is entrusted with the “primary responsibility for the  maintenance of international peace and security” and regularly submitting reports, recommendations, and requests to  the other UN bodies, especially the General Assembly. There are five permanent Member States and 10 non permanent Member States which serve rotating two-year terms in the SC. The permanent Member States are China,  France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The current non-permanent Member  States are Bahrain, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Greece, Latvia, Liberia, Pakistan,  Panama, and Somalia. The non-permanent Member States on the SC are elected by a two-thirds majority of the  General Assembly. Article 23 of the UN Charter requires the non-permanent Member States to be elected according  to “equitable geographical distribution.” To fulfil the requirement of equitable geographical distribution, the  General Assembly passed Resolution 1991 A (XVIII) in 1963, requiring five non-permanent Member States be  elected from Africa and Asia, one from Eastern Europe, two from Latin America, and two from Western Europe or  elsewhere.

The SC reaches decisions by voting, and every Member State receives one vote. Decisions on “procedural matters”  require nine affirmative votes, rather than a simple majority. Decisions on “all other matters” also require nine  votes, except that all permanent Member States must either vote affirmatively or abstain from voting. No clear  distinction is made between which matters are procedural and which are non-procedural. The indeterminate nature  of motions allows permanent Member States in the SC to exercise the “double veto” because the “preliminary  question” to determine the procedural nature of a matter is itself eligible for the veto of a permanent Member State. The power of the double veto was first exercised in a June 7, 1945 “statement on voting” from all permanent  Member States excluding France, but was not commonly used in the early years of the SC.

The SC is funded directly from the United Nations’ Regular Budget, which has declined in recent years due to  Member States not fully paying their assessed contribution in a timely manner, potentially posing obstacles for the  SC in the future. The UN Charter legally obligates Member States to make independent contributions to the SC’s  peacekeeping efforts.

Recent SC activity affirming its dedication to peaceful resolution includes S/RES/2788 (2025), which “encourages the Secretary-General to ensure that the United Nations is able to lead and support mediation and preventive  diplomacy efforts.” The UN Charter compels all Member States to comply with decisions made by SC. In the event that Member States fail to comply with the SC, the SC also possesses the power to impose “complete or partial interruption of economic relations.” Currently, 726 individuals and 273 groups or organizations are subject to  restrictions on economic relations by the SC. Finally, the SC has the authority to approve of the use of force when  economic restrictions are insufficient. The SC may implement peacekeeping, “to support the implementation of a  ceasefire or peace agreement,” peacebuilding, to “reduce the risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict,” peacemaking,  to “address conflicts in progress,” and/or peace enforcement, which “involves the application of a range of coercive  measures, including the use of military force.” UN Peacekeeping operations began shortly after the UN’s founding  with the deployment of peacekeepers to the Middle East in 1948 to supervise a truce between Israel and its  neighboring Member States. To date, there have been more than 70 peacekeeping operations involving hundreds of  thousands of personnel from more than 120 Member States. The First UN Emergency Force, deployed to Egypt in 1956, was the first armed peacekeeping operation. There are currently 11 active peacekeeping operations. Current operations include the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, the first peacekeeping operation established in 1948. 

In the past few years, Member States have increasingly called for structural reform in the UN, including the SC. In  January 2026, the General Assembly held open discussions “on the question of equitable representation and increase  in the membership of the Security Council.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres has spoken on the concerns  of equitable representation noted by the General Assembly, saying “The Security Council is not about hegemons and  empires. It is about parents who have lost their children, refugees flung far from their homes, soldiers who have  sacrificed their limbs.” Others are concerned the SC’s veto power may contribute to SC inefficiency. For  example, in 2025 alone a permanent Member State’s veto prevented significant SC resolutions on both the conflict  in Gaza and the conflict in Ukraine. Facing financial constraints, growing calls for structural reform, and a rapidly  expanding list of global crises, the ability of the Security Council to fulfill its mission, and therefore the future of the  SC itself, remains unclear.

Frank Church Model United Nations extends its deepest gratitude to the Southern Regional Model United Nations (SRMUN) for allowing us to use their resources for our conference.