Russia chairs the UN executive body for one month, starting April 1. Issues, program, international reactions… Franceinfo takes stock.
A “bad joke” for April 1st. This is how Ukraine qualified on Saturday the arrival of Russia at the head of the Security Council of the United Nations (UN), the executive body of the institution. Succeeding Mozambique, she will chair the body for a month, more than a year after her invasion of Ukraine, and while its president, Vladimir Putin, is the subject of an international arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court ( ICC) for “deportation” of Ukrainian children. Franceinfo comes back in five questions on this presidency under high tension.
1 What is the UN Security Council?
It is one of the six main bodies of the UN, created in 1945. It is made up of 15 members, including five permanent members: China, the United States, Russia, France and the United Kingdom. In addition, 10 members are elected by the General Assembly of UN member countries for a two-year term, respecting equitable geographical distribution. Currently, these are Albania, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland.
Its main mission is the maintenance of international peace and security, recalls the United Nations website. In this context, it investigates disagreements between nations and proposes solutions to remedy them, such as diplomatic measures (investigation and mediation measures, etc.), non-coercive measures (financial or commercial sanctions, travel bans, etc.). ) but also of a military nature in the event of an attack. The Security Council can meet at any time, and each member must have a representative at all times at the organization’s headquarters in New York (USA).
While the authority of other UN bodies is limited to making recommendations to member states, the Security Council alone is empowered to take decisions that bind member states. For this, they must be taken by nine members of the Security Council, including all the permanent members, who can nevertheless abstain, recalls article 27 of the Charter of the organization. In addition, each permanent member has a right of veto, which prevents a resolution or decision from being adopted, recalls the United Nations website.
2 What is the presidency of the Security Council for?
It is provided by each of the Member States in turn for a month, following the English alphabetical order of their names, recalls the UN website. “The presidency of the Security Council plays a role of facilitator of the debates and general organization of the work of the Council over the month. If it does not confer any particular prerogatives, it nevertheless makes it possible to give political impulses”, notes the site of French diplomacy. If he must respect the regular and mandatory deadlines (renewal of peacekeeping operation mandates, debates, etc.), the president can in particular take the initiative to organize meetings on certain topics. “in order to mark its priorities”.
3 What is the program of the Russian presidency?
Russia has not held the presidency of the Security Council since February 2022, when the invasion of Ukraine began. For this new presidency, Moscow has already highlighted several key moments. The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov, will chair a public debate in New York on “effective multilateralism through the defense of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations”, announced his spokesperson Thursday, without providing a date. He also intends chair another session of debates on the geopolitical situation in the Middle East on April 25.
The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassili Nebenzia, also announced a debate on April 10 on the violation of agreements regulating the export of arms and military products, reports TV5 Monde, citing an interview given by the dignitary to the Russian state agency, Tass (in English), March 31. This debate should be an opportunity for Russia to denounce the action of Westerners who deliver arms to Ukraine. I‘ambassador Russian also announced that Moscow was planning an informal meeting “on children evacuated from the Donbass war zone and Ukraine” in order to “dispelling the false narratives spread by Western media”.
More generally, “we expect them to also seek opportunities to advance their disinformation campaign against Ukraine, the United States and all of our allies”said the American ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, to AFP.
4 How is the international community reacting?
Ukraine called the future Russian presidency a “bad joke”. “Russia has usurped its seat, it is waging a colonial war, its president is a war criminal wanted by the ICC for child abduction”, lambasted his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kouleba, Thursday, March 30. He also denounced “a slap in the face of the international community”reports AFP.
The United States has also issued “doubts” on the fact that Russia behaves “in a professional manner” during this presidency, in the words of Linda Thomas-Greenfield to AFP. Nevertheless, no member state of the Security Council has planned a boycott, underlines with franceinfo Florent Parmentier, Secretary General of the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po (Cevipof). “The idea of a suspension or a total boycott seems complicated”believes the researcher, because there is no “equivalent”. Not to mention that Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council, which gives it significant weight within the institution. On the other hand, it is likely that there will be, on the part of kyiv’s allies, “a form of degradation of the level of representation” to demonstrate their opposition, considers Florent Parmentier.
“Rather than sending foreign ministers, countries will no doubt send lesser people to sit on this body.”
Florent Parmentier, General Secretary of Cevipofat franceinfo
5 Is it possible to exclude Russia from the Security Council?
The Charter of the United Nations clearly provides in Articles 5 and 6 that a member may be suspended or expelled from the organization if “preventive or coercive action” has been exercised against him by the United Nations, or if he “persistently violates the stated principles” in said charter. But these provisions require the validation of the Security Council… where Russia has a right of veto.
No exclusion has ever been pronounced since the creation of the organization in 1945, reminded Franceinfo, in April 2022, Frédéric Encel, lecturer at Sciences-Po and doctor in geopolitics.