Abstract:

The United Nations Security Council’s (SC’s) responsibilities have grown as new international challenges have emerged. These challenges include global environmental issues, refugee flows and mass migration across borders, the rapid spread of infectious diseases, civil war that threatens international peace and security, global terrorism and transnational crime. It is acknowledged that many non-state actors could contribute to the SC’s work in dealing with such challenges. The SC has to this end made informal use of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). The current paper first discusses the previous interactions between NGOs and the Security Council. It later analyses the sufficiency of these relations. The current paper suggests that these informal relationships should be strengthened. It is proposed that the Council should consider granting formal access to NGOs that have, as non-state actors, been active in the international legal order, and that have already made significant contributions to the above-mentioned issues.

Keywords: