Joint Press Stakeout on Subsidiary Bodies by the Elected Members (E-10) and the Incoming Five Members (I5) of the United Nations Security Council
Date: 19 August 2026
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the elected members and the five incoming members of the Security Council, namely: Austria, Bahrain, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Greece, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Pakistan, Panama, Portugal, Somalia, Trinidad and Tobago, Zimbabwe.
We wish to express our profound concern that, eight months into the year, the Security Council has still not been able to agree on the appointment of the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of its subsidiary bodies. This is the longest delay in the Council's history and an unprecedented situation that undermines the effectiveness, credibility and institutional integrity of the Security Council.
Subsidiary bodies are indispensable to the Council's work. They oversee sanctions regimes, support peace operations, engage with Member States and regional organisations, and advance important thematic issues. The continued absence of appointed Chairs and Vice-Chairs has already disrupted their work, delayed decision-making, weakened transparency and engagement with the wider UN membership, and reduced the effectiveness of the Council in carrying out its responsibilities under the Charter.
We are grateful to the successive Council Presidencies, who have since January 2026 assumed caretaker responsibilities and ensured that the most urgent work could continue. However, this exceptional arrangement cannot indefinitely substitute for the appointment of duly designated Chairs and Vice-Chairs and must not become the new normal.
The elected members have engaged throughout this process in a constructive, pragmatic and solution-oriented spirit. They have demonstrated considerable flexibility and put forward balanced proposals aimed solely at enabling the Council to move forward. The continued deadlock therefore cannot be attributed to a lack of practical solutions, but rather to the continued absence of the flexibility and compromise required to reach agreement.
This prolonged impasse is also inconsistent with the Council's own agreed working methods. Note 507 provides that every effort should be made to agree on the appointment of Chairs for the following year no later than 1 October. Meanwhile, the five incoming elected members have already begun preparing for their terms. The continued uncertainty is institutionally, politically and operationally untenable.
We therefore call on all members of the Security Council, in particular those who continue to withhold agreement, to demonstrate the flexibility and political will necessary to bring this process to a conclusion without further delay. The Council owes this not only to itself, but also to the wider UN membership that it serves.
Finally, we believe that the experience of the past two years demonstrates the urgent need to strengthen the Council's working methods to ensure that future allocations of subsidiary bodies are timely, predictable and resilient. We are pursuing constructive efforts, including within the Informal Working Group on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions, to address the current impasse, and with a view to preventing similar institutional paralysis in the future. We will utilize all available options to put in place a framework that facilitates the process of appointment of the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the subsidiary bodies in a timely and predictable manner.
I thank you.