Amnesty International: Permanent Members of the UN Security Council Must be Refused in Their Right to Veto

• 02.25.2015, 09:22
•  Europe,  Near East,  World

Amnesty International called the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to give up their power of veto in situations of mass atrocities, BBC reports. Secretary General of the international organization, Salil Shetty, in his  statement noted that the United Nations Security Council had "miserably failed" to protect civilians. According to Amnesty International report for 2014, the previous year was characterized by the worst refugee crises in history, when four million Syrians were displaced as a result of war and thousands of migrants died in the Mediterranean.

On the occasion Shetty particularly stated: "Instead, the council's five permanent members - the UK, China, France, Russia and the US - had used their veto to promote their political self-interest or geopolitical interest above the interest of protecting civilians",- BBC reports.

The proponents of this decision referring to the case of Syria noted that if five permanent members of  Security Council had already been refused in their right of veto, it could have been possible to  prevent  Russia from  using its veto repeatedly to block UN action over the violence in Syria. According to BBC world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge, this would give a possibility to bring President  Bashar al-Assad to the International Criminal Court: "in achieving greater access for badly needed humanitarian aid and in further ways of helping civilians".