The International Bar Association is headquartered in Paris, and most of its members are from French-speaking countries, but the association has 200 subordinate organizations representing more than two million lawyers in more than 100 countries. On August 30th, 2003, the 47th Congress of the International Bar Association was held in Lisbon, Portugal. At the opening ceremony, the president of the association, Lebanese lawyer Ake, proposed to amend the UN Charter. He said that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan recently mentioned that the current international order is experiencing a serious crisis. Ake said that this is a warning. He said that although Annan did not say this, it implies the need to change the international order, and therefore also changes a document that is vital to the international order, the 1947 UN Charter. The reforms he proposed include abolishing the provisions of the UN Charter that deal with the outcome of the Second World War, increasing the number of permanent members of the Security Council, abolishing the veto power of permanent members, reorganizing the UN finances, and making the UN more independent of its member states. In addition, measures must be taken to ensure that the decisions of the United Nations are backed by sanctions. These reform proposals were submitted to the President of the General Assembly, the Portuguese President. In his speech, he tried to avoid discussing these proposals. Outside the General Assembly Hall, Aker also mentioned another, more controversial reform, moving the United Nations headquarters from the United States to what he called a neutral country.