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https://theconversation.com/stripping-russias-veto-power-on-the-security-council-is-all-but-impossible-perhaps-we-should-expect-less-from-the-un-instead-213985>
"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has lambasted the UN Security Council
yet again, saying in a speech this week that as long as Russia has veto power
on the body, it will remain powerless to do anything to stop the war in Ukraine
– or any other conflict.
Ukrainian soldiers are doing with their blood what the UN Security Council
should do by its voting. […] Veto power in the hands of the aggressor is
what has pushed the UN into deadlock.
Every time a member of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council –
the US, Russia, France, the UK and China – engages in abhorrent actions, we see
a wave of voices decrying the powerlessness and failure of the UN to stop
conflict and atrocities.
Most recently, this has been focused on the Russian war in Ukraine. We also saw
this criticism in relation to the US- and UK-led invasion of Iraq in the early
2000s.
The central part of this criticism is that the five permanent members of the
Security Council (commonly referred to as the “P5”) have a veto power, which
can prevent UN action when they have engaged in wrongdoing. The other 10
rotating members of the Security Council do not.
This veto power is what has prevented Russia from being expelled from the UN,
as Zelensky has repeatedly called for, because suspension or expulsion of a
member from the UN requires action from the Security Council.
This criticism is entirely reasonable – the P5 shouldn’t be able to prevent the
UN from acting against them. However, this isn’t a failure of the UN itself,
but rather a design feature baked in to the whole UN system.
And reform of the UN is functionally impossible, which is why we need to stop
expecting so much from the global body."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
