[Admin]

Brazil has been elected today, October 15, 2009, by the United Nations General Assembly, to a two-year term as a non-permanent member of the Security Council (from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2011). Brazil received 182 votes from a total of 183 voting countries. Brazil will hold an elective seat in the Council for the tenth time, a number matched only by Japan.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Gabon, Lebanon and Nigeria have also been elected to the same term.

The Security Council will be composed by the following countries in 2010: Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda (serving the 2009-2010 term); Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Gabon, Lebanon and Nigeria (elected to the 2010-11 term), as well as the five permanent members (China, France, United States, United Kingdom and Russia).

Under the United Nations Charter, the Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security and the authority to determine "the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression" (article 39). The Council decides which measures are to be adopted to fight those threats, including the establishment of peacekeeping operations.

As an elected member of the Security Council, the Brazilian priorities are, among others, stability in Haiti, the situation of Guinea Bissau, peace in the Middle East, efforts towards disarmament, the promotion of respect for International Humanitarian Law, the strengthening of peacekeeping operations and an approach that relates the defense of security to the promotion of socioeconomic development.

Brazil, a founding member of the United Nations, has a long tradition of contributing to peacekeeping operations. In 1956, Brazilian troops were sent to the First United Nations Emergency Force in Suez (UNEF I). Since then, Brazil has participated in more than 30 United Nations peace operations and contributed with about 20 thousand troops. Nowadays, Brazil contributes with more than 1,300 soldiers, military observers and police forces in three continents. The greatest contingent is in Haiti, where a Brazilian General also holds the military command of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), composed of 17 countries.

http://www.isria.com...er_2009_239.php