Two weeks ago, 67 countries said they favored limiting the veto powers of permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. Now, more than 100 do, perhaps the best indication of growing anger in the international community about how Vladimir Putin is using this power to block investigations into his aggression and crimes.
The right of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council has been in place since the founding of the United Nations 70 years ago, and while some countries have occasionally questioned it, there has never been the kind of groundswell of opposition to this practice as there is today.
In large measure, this reflects anger at Mr. Putin’s vetoing of efforts to investigate the shooting down of the Malaysian airline and more generally at the U.N.’s ineffectiveness in responding to Russian aggression in Ukraine (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2015/09/67-countries-now-back-limiting-russias.html).
Despite the numbers of countries backing change, it is far from clear that this effort will succeed, especially since other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council view the veto as something they need to defend either themselves or their clients. But the fact that it has gotten this far certainly highlights one of Mr. Putin’s greatest negative achievements.
On September 29, Yuriy Sergeyev, Ukraine’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said that “more than 100 U.N. member countries support the initiative of France concerning the introduction of changes in the U.N. Charter that would limit the use of the veto” in the Security Council (interfax.com.ua/news/general/293333.html).
The Ukrainian diplomat said that “the first hope” for change is that the permanent members themselves will agree “not to apply a veto in cases of open conflict which threaten human life,” but that in the absence of that, other countries will continue to press for change even though this question is “complex” because it involves the U.N. Charter itself.
This week, Ambassador Sergeyev continued, there will be a special session called by France and Mexico to consider the French initiative. “Ukraine supports” it, as do “already more than 100 countries.” The task now is to get as many others to join them as possible in order to create “a critical mass” to pressure others.
Paul Goble is a long-time specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia who has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau, as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble writes a blog called “Window on Eurasia” (http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/). The article above is reprinted with permission.