Emmanuel Macron calls for limiting the right of veto at the Security Council in the event of “mass crimes”

French President Emmanuel Macron called on Wednesday, September 25, at the UN podium for “Limit” the right of veto in the Security Council in the event of a “mass crime”as part of a reform to make the key UN body more effective. This right has, for example, been used repeatedly by the United States during votes on the situation in Gaza, or by Russia regarding the war in Ukraine.

While more and more states are calling for the enlargement of the Council, a reform of its composition alone “would not be enough to restore its effectiveness and I therefore hope that this reform will also allow for a change in working methods, to limit the right of veto in the event of mass crime, and to concentrate on operational decisions required to maintain peace and international security”declared the French head of state.

By wanting to regulate the right of veto in the Security Council, Emmanuel Macron is in fact taking up a French position expressed since 2013, recalls the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its website. This reform would allow, according to the Quai d’Orsay, to “not to resign ourselves to the paralysis of the Security Council when mass atrocities are committed”This commitment would be made within the framework of “a voluntary approach which would therefore not imply a revision of the United Nations Charter”, specifies French diplomacy.