Annual Report of the Security Council to the General Assembly
Tomorrow morning (5 June), the General Assembly is expected to discuss the annual report of the Security Council. The report, which covers the period from 1 January to 31 December 2025, was adopted by the Security Council on 22 May (S/2026/426).
Under Article 24(3) of the UN Charter, the Security Council must submit an annual report to the General Assembly for its consideration. The submission of the annual report is the only clear obligation that the Council has to the General Assembly under the Charter.
Pakistan drafted the introduction of the report. This section of the report is prepared under the coordination of the Council’s July presidency from the previous calendar year. If that member left the Council at the end of the year, the drafting transfers to the member next in English alphabetical order and who is not leaving the Council at year end. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which will be Council president in July, is therefore expected to draft the introduction of next year’s annual report.
The introduction provides a factual overview of the Council’s work in the reporting year. The rest of the report covers Council activities and matters considered by the Council that year. It is prepared by the UN Secretariat and approved by the current members of the Council and immediate past members.
Over the years, the wider UN membership has been critical of the lack of analysis in, and late adoption of, the Council’s annual report, and has pushed for improvements. As part of this endeavour, starting in 2024, the President of the General Assembly began convening informal consultations with the wider UN membership on the work of the Council in the preceding year. At this year’s meeting, held on 16 January, member states emphasised that the annual report should “reflect avenues for the General Assembly to act in complementarity with the Security Council” and reiterated their call for more analytical content. On the latter point, speakers suggested that the report could provide information on explanations of vote, analysis on the use of the veto and its impact on the Council’s ability to promote peace and security, and reflections on the role of the Council’s elected members and troop-contributing countries, among other issues.
Pakistan sought to integrate the views of the wider UN membership into the introduction of the report, and therefore it shared the first draft of the text to Council members shortly after the 16 January meeting. The draft underwent two revisions, and the third revised text passed a silence procedure on 2 February. The full report, including the summary of the Council’s activities prepared by the Secretariat, subsequently passed a no-objection procedure on 11 May. The process therefore appears to have complied with the timelines outlined in the latest presidential note on the annual report (S/2019/997), adopted in 2019, which stipulated that the Council is expected to complete the introduction no later than 31 January and adopt the report by 30 May, “in time for its consideration by the General Assembly immediately thereafter”.
It seems that the negotiations on the report’s introduction were constructive. Pakistan apparently engaged extensively with Council members in order to find acceptable formulations for some contentious matters, including language on the use of the veto. There were also several aspects that needed to be negotiated in the body of the report, such as how to reflect the Council’s engagement on the Middle East, Ukraine, Western Sahara, and non-proliferation issues concerning Iran.
Overall, the agreed introduction represents an effort to produce a more analytical report, demonstrating that suggestions advanced by the wider UN membership over the years are gradually being taken on board. As it has since 2024, the body of this year’s annual report includes a separate chapter on the special reports on the use of the veto that were submitted to the General Assembly pursuant to resolution 76/262 (also known as “the veto initiative”). The introduction to this year’s annual report notes that while there has been a decrease in the use of the veto in 2025 compared with the previous year, its use remained a concern among member states. It also continues the practice, introduced in 2021, of including disaggregated data on participation by women and civil society briefers.
For the first time, the introduction to this year’s annual report recognises challenges that have hindered the Council’s work in addressing protracted conflicts and large-scale humanitarian crises, such as heightened geopolitical tensions and divisions among Council members. Nonetheless, it highlights the Council’s continued engagement across various situations, arguing that this reaffirms the organ’s “enduring centrality” in addressing threats to international peace and security.
The introduction to the report addresses several issues raised by member states at the informal consultations on 16 January. For instance, it notes the joint letter issued on 25 November 2025 by the presidents of the Security Council and the General Assembly that launched the process to select and appoint the next UN Secretary-General. The introduction also references the unprecedented delay in the appointment of chairs and vice-chairs of subsidiary bodies in 2025, which was only decided on 29 May, stressing that this has “significantly hindered the Council’s ability to fulfil its mandate”.
Many member states view the occasion of the presentation of the annual report as an important opportunity for the General Assembly to hold the Security Council accountable and to assess its performance over the past year. However, turnout by member states at these debates is often low. In 2025, 16 statements were delivered, including one joint statement on behalf of the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency (ACT) Group, which consists of 27 small and medium-sized states working to enhance the Council’s effectiveness by strengthening its working methods. At tomorrow’s General Assembly meeting, Ecuador is expected to deliver a statement on behalf of the ACT Group. This statement might welcome the efforts in recent years to make the introduction of the Security Council’s annual report more analytical. It might also make several suggestions on how to make the document even more substantive, including by describing how Council decisions are implemented and their impact on the ground and elaborating on the proceedings of informal meetings such as closed consultations. Other member states may echo the need for a more substantive annual report. They may also emphasise the importance of greater transparency of the Council, including in relation to the ongoing process of selecting the next UN Secretary-General.
