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The Security Council Nations for the year 2000. Nations in dark blue are permenant memeber, while the others are normal members
The Security Council is responsible for peace and security, which also happens to be the UN's most important goal. For this reason, the Security Council is the most powerful and

mportant body. Unlike other organs, it can be called at any time of the day or night to discuss urgent issues. As well, unlike the General Assembly, it may take action, and if it sees fit, send peacekeeping troops to a war zone or make an embargo on a country which violates UN policies. The General Assembly is somewhat responsible to the Security Council. As well, there are some things that the General Assembly cannot do without the Council's approval. For instance, the General Assembly may vote for its own Secretary-General, but he or she must first be approved by the Security Council. As well, if a new nation is to be accepted into the community of the UN, its candidacy must be approved by the Security Council, and then be passed on to the General Assembly which in turn will vote on the country's membership. The decision of the Security Council must be obeyed by all of the members of the United Nations. (Article 25) There are a total of 15
members at any given time in the Security Council, and each member is only allowed to bring one representative. There are five permanent members: the USA, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, China and France.
Security council session
Ten other members are elected by the General Assembly. Currently, the ten members are Argentina, Bangladesh, Canada, Jamaica, Mali, Namibia, Netherlands, Tunisia, and Ukraine. (This information will remain accurate until December 31st, 2000. When doing so, the voters are encouraged to take into account the standing of the country in the peacekeeping community and in the other beneficial aspects of
the UN such as humanitarian action. As well, an effort should be made to get members in the Security Council from various countries in different parts of the world. (Article 23) In order to pass a decision, nine of the members must vote favourably, and none of the permanent members must object. Even if all 14 members of the Security Council vote favourably, but one permanent member objects, the decision cannot be made. This is called veto power. Even though there can only
Peace Keeping mission in Croatia
be 15 member nations in the Security Council at any given time, other nations which are thought to be directly affected by the subject under discussion may be called in by the Council and participate in the discussion. However, they may not vote in the Security Council if they are not part of it.