Is it Possible to Deprive Russia from Using Its Right to Veto in the UN?

• 09.17.2015, 17:53
•  World

A special page was created recently in Twitter with a hashtag #restrainveto ("restricted veto"), where an appropriate petition was published. A similar initiative was made by Kiev.

More than one-third of UN member states have voted for depriving the permanent members of the Security Council from veto right in those cases when it comes to respond to conflicts about the large number of casualties. This was stated by the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Yuriy Sergeyev, who said such a decision would "put an end to the veto use abuse by Russia", adding that 67 countries have already supported this initiative.

The right to veto in the UN Security Council belongs only to its 5 permanent members - the United States, Great Britain, China, France and Russia. These countries have become permanent members of the Security Council as a result of winning World War II.

According to the research by the group of Global Policy Forum international experts, a UN veto right was applied in its  history for 262 cases, about one third of which was put by the Soviet Union. In the second place is the US which has used its veto power for 82 times.

It should be noted that Russia vetoed 5 times in the UN during the period of 2007-2013. This year, Russia has vetoed on the resolution of the establishment of an international tribunal to investigate the causes of the collapse of Malaysia Boeing in Eastern Ukraine.

Russia's right to veto in the present circumstances when there is a global confrontation is quite important. As Russia's representative to the UN, Vitaly Churkin has declared, the initiative to limit Russia's right to veto can be seen in political context. "We believe that the right to veto of permanent members is an important mechanism that makes the delegations work towards consensus" Churkin said.

The other permanent members of the UN Security Council avoided commenting on Ukraine’s initiative. However, this initiative is clearly favorable to them in the current international situation. Over the past 4 years, Russia, along with China, has blocked the resolutions proposed by the West concerning Ukrainian and Syrian conflicts. This is why, despite the fact that all the permanent members of the Security Council petition will be restricted in their use of the right to veto according to the resolution, this is seen as a purely anti-Russian initiative.

Experts believe that implementation of this initiative is almost impossible. Under the UN Charter, it is necessary that the two-third of the member states sign it, including the permanent members of the Security Council in order to ratify it. Note that when France suggested the same thing in 2013, the initiative was supported only by 50 of the members.

In addition, apart from limiting the veto right at the UN Security Council, there are also some other changes suggested. In particular, several European countries and the United States want to increase the number of permanent members of the Security Council, proposing to include India, Japan and Germany as well. Moscow is rather keen on this initiative, only if the "newcomers" are not granted the right to veto.

In any case, experts say there is really a need to reform the Security Council, since its inception in 1945, the geopolitical situation has changed a lot. In particular, they stress that it would make much sense if France and Britain, being part of the EU common policy, would not have an individual right to veto.

As for the limitations of using a veto, it should be noted that experts believe that it is desirable to limit the right to use the veto only in cases where there is a real need for an immediate decision. Among those cases the situations like genocide or crimes against humanity are mentioned.