United Nations Security Council

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was established in 1946 as one of the six principal organs of the UN. It is generally viewed as the apex of the UN system.
It is responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Its powers include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions, and the authorization of military action through Security Council resolutions.
It is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions to member states.

UNSC consists of 15 Members.
The council has five permanent members (P-5) United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom and France.
These permanent members can veto any substantive Security Council resolutions, including those on the admission of new member states.
The Security Council also has 10 non-permanent members, elected on a regional basis as follows:
- five for African and Asian States;
- one for Eastern European States;
- two for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and
- two for Western European and other States.
Each year the 193-member UN General Assembly (UNGA) elects five non-permanent members for a two-year term.
The body’s presidency rotates monthly among its members.

Each member of the Security Council shall have one vote.
Decisions of the Security Council on procedural matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of nine members.
Decisions of the Security Council on all other matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of nine members including the concurring votes of the permanent members.
However, any member, whether permanent or nonpermanent, must abstain from voting in any decision concerning the peaceful settlement of a dispute to which it is a party.

The U.N. Security Council has urged Somalia’s government to organize elections without delay in a resolution that stressed the pressing threat to the country’s security from armed opposition groups.
The resolution, which was adopted unanimously, authorized the African Union to maintain its nearly 20,000-strong force in Somalia until the end of the year with a mandate to reduce the threat from the extremist groups to enable a stable, federal, sovereign and united Somalia.
The resolution’s adoption came amid growing pressure on Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed after scheduled elections on 8th of last month failed to take place because of the lack of agreement on how the vote should be carried out.

The African Union (AU) is a continental body consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African Continent.
It was officially launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity.

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