Algeria Ends ‘Document Apartheid’ At The UN Security Council

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC), at the initiative of Algeria and after more than six months of consultations, has recognised the principle of equal access to internal and non-public documents of the Council for all its members without discrimination, which was previously limited to the permanent members only.

Shortly after the beginning of its mandate in the Security Council, starting from January 2024, Algeria discovered an unacceptable reality: the elected members of the Security Council did not have access to all documents and archives related to the work of the Council, as only the permanent members had access to all internal and non-public documents of the Council.

Algeria could not accept this without questioning the reason for this distinction between permanent and elected members, only to be confronted with the fact that some permanent members consider these documents as ‘exclusive’, which led to this discriminatory approach that was not even based on any legal or organizational rule, but on a ‘well-established practice’ that no one had previously seen the need to question.

The Permanent Mission of Algeria in New York initiated active consultations with the members of the A3+ group, who expressed their support for Algeria’s endeavour, and then expanded the consultations to all the elected members of the Council.

Algeria’s endeavor could not continue without encountering obstacles put in place by some permanent members, who considered these files as ‘their own reserve’ to which elected members were not allowed access, except with their prior approval.

Hence, the dialectic shifted from highlighting this illogical situation, to the legal and procedural struggle to remove this discrimination and put all members of the Council on an equal footing. Algeria, supported by a number of elected members, initiated several legal and procedural manoeuvres to create a file that could be used during negotiations.

This point was also registered in several closed meetings and informal meetings of the Permanent Representatives of the members of the Security Council, in addition to the inclusion of the issue in the informal working group of the Security Council on documentation and other procedural matters, chaired by Japan.

Resolutely and tirelessly, with a well-planned approach, calmly and with a great ability to convince with legal arguments and after more than 6 months of negotiations, Algeria’s efforts were crowned with success, as this achievement became known as the ‘Algerian initiative to legalize access to the working documents of the UN Security Council’.

The Council adopted a memorandum of the President, amending the famous Memorandum No. 507 of 2017, which regulates its work. This document, adopted in sections VI (Cooperation and consultation within the Council) and XIII (Newly elected members), explicitly recognises the right of all Council members, without discrimination, to full access to Council documents related to the issues under consideration, while precisely defining the procedures for requests for access to certain documents.

This is evidenced by the inclusion of new paragraphs of President’s Note S/2024/507, as well as substantive amendments to the Council’s working methods, particularly with regard to elected members.

This achievement, which eliminated the ‘document apartheid’, is part of a series of successes achieved by Algerian diplomacy during the first year of its mandate at the Security Council. President’s Note 507 is famous for being the only official document of the Security Council, which includes all procedural matters adopted since its establishment, explains and complements the provisional rules of procedure established by its members since 1946 and codifies the methodology of work among the members of the Security Council.