what efforts have been made to establish a new democratic united nations

International & regional bodies

The UN Secretary-General calls Security Council reform "the most important reform", saying the Council is not effective enough and that veto-holding "superpowers" act with impunity. The African Union demands permanent African seats as "the correction of a historical injustice".

AUC Chairperson reaffirmed Africa's united & principled position on UN Security Council reform · au.int
Security Council reform 'is absolutely essential': Guterres · news.un.org

Governments & official records

Brazil, Germany, India and Japan (the G4) want both the permanent and non-permanent Council seats expanded. They regret that the General Assembly's Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) have produced nothing substantial in 16 years.

Joint G4 Statement by Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan at the Informal Meeting of the General Assembly on the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council Reform · un.emb-japan.go.jp

Research institutes

The Council on Foreign Relations describes Guterres's UN80 Initiative as an internal restructuring meant to make the UN more agile through budget cuts and merging agencies. Staff and member states have scrutinised it.

The UN80 Initiative: What to Know About the United Nations' Reform Plan · cfr.org

News & reporting

Al Jazeera reports that in September 2026 Guterres blamed the Council's "paralysis" on powers that "themselves violate international law and sit in the Security Council". He called for power to be redistributed as "an absolute priority".

Geopolitical divides fueling UN Security Council inaction, Guterres warns · aljazeera.com

Justice Council Political Analysis

Reform efforts focus on enlarging the Security Council, not on creating a new, democratically elected body. They are stalled for three reasons, from most to least important. First, the UN Charter's amendment rule lets each permanent member block change. Second, the negotiating process works by consensus, so any group can stall it. Third, the reform camps disagree over the veto.

Moving the talks from consensus to a text-based negotiation, with a General Assembly vote as Article 108 allows, would put permanent members in the position of having to block reform openly. Limiting the veto in cases of mass atrocities would change the incentives that keep reform shut.

Conclusion

The main effort the sources describe is reform of the Security Council. The African Union wants two permanent and five more non-permanent African seats. The G4 (Brazil, Germany, India and Japan) want both kinds of seat expanded. The Secretary-General calls reform the UN's top priority and is also pursuing an internal restructuring called UN80. None of the sources mentions an elected UN Parliamentary Assembly or a new world body. After 16 years of talks, Council reform still has no negotiating text.