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How many non-permanent members does the United Nations Security Council have?
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Answer: Option C — Ten
Detailed Solution
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has 10 non-permanent members, in addition to 5 permanent members, making a total of 15 members.
About the non-permanent members:
They are elected by the UN General Assembly for two-year terms. Five of them are elected each year.
A candidate needs a two-thirds majority of the members of the General Assembly present and voting.
A retiring member cannot be immediately re-elected.
The seats are distributed among regions: Africa (3), Asia-Pacific (2), Latin America and the Caribbean (2), Western Europe and Others (2), and Eastern Europe (1). One Arab seat alternates between the Asian and African groups.
They do not have the power of veto.
History:
- Originally, the Security Council had 11 members: 5 permanent and 6 non-permanent.
- An amendment to the UN Charter, adopted in 1963 and effective from 1965, increased the number of non-permanent members from 6 to 10.
About the permanent members (P5):
- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
- They have the power of "veto": a negative vote by any one of them can block a decision on substantive matters.
About the Security Council:
- It is one of the six principal organs of the UN and has the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security.
- Its decisions (resolutions) are legally binding on all UN member states.
- Decisions on substantive matters need nine votes, including the votes (or abstentions) of all five permanent members.
- Its presidency rotates every month among its members, in English alphabetical order.
- It is located at the UN headquarters in New York.
India and the Security Council:
- India has been elected a non-permanent member eight times: 1950-51, 1967-68, 1972-73, 1977-78, 1984-85, 1991-92, 2011-12 and 2021-22.
- India has been seeking a permanent seat, as part of the "G4" group (Brazil, Germany, India and Japan), which supports each other's bids for permanent membership.
- The "Uniting for Consensus" group (including Italy and Pakistan) opposes adding new permanent members.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Five is the number of permanent members.
- ✗Six was the original number of non-permanent members (before 1965).
- ✗Fifteen is the total number of members.
Quick tip
Remember: UN Security Council = 15 members (5 permanent with veto + 10 non-permanent elected for 2 years; increased from 6 to 10 in 1965); India = non-permanent member 8 times (last 2021-22); G4 = Brazil, Germany, India, Japan.
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International Economic Organisations — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of International Economic Organisations, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers international economic and financial organisations: the IMF, the World Bank group, the WTO, the Asian Development Bank, the New Development Bank, the AIIB, OPEC, the OECD and groupings such as the G20, along with their headquarters, founding and functions. Questions usually ask where an organisation is headquartered, when it was set up, and what it does. For example, the IMF and World Bank were created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, the WTO replaced GATT in 1995, and the New Development Bank, set up by the BRICS countries, is headquartered in Shanghai. Practise the international economic organisations questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.