Bosnia elected to Security Council

Bosnia-Herzegovina has been elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the period 2010-2011, says UN General Assembly President Ali Treki.

Brazil, Gabon, Liberia and Nigeria have also become non-permanent members.

The UN Security Council is made up of 15 members: five permanent (France, Great Britain, the United States, China and Russia) and ten non-permanent, elected for a period of two years.

The non-permanent members are elected on a regional basis—Africa has three seats; Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Western Europe have two members each; and Eastern Europe has one seat.

One Arab country is also always on the Security Council, whether from Africa or Asia.

Five new non-permanent members are selected every year.

A two-thirds majority is needed for a country to be elected to the Security Council.

In its European geographical group, Bosnia-Herzegovina was elected with 183 votes.

The former Yugoslavia sat on the Security Council four times, and, of the countries created from its collapse, only Slovenia (1998/1999) and Croatia (2008/2009) have been members before Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The five new members will be joining Austria, Mexico, Japan, Turkey and Uganda, who will remain non-permanent Council members until January 2011.