The resolution, initiated by Liechtenstein, obliges the five permanent members of the Security Council to justify their recourse to the veto. A rare reform revived by the Russian invasion.
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It will now be a question of justifying oneself. The United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus on Tuesday, April 26, a resolution requiring the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to justify their use of the veto. A rare reform that was revived by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Directly targeting the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom, the sole holders of the right of veto, the measure initiated by Liechtenstein is intended to “to pay a higher political price” when they have recourse to it, summarizes an ambassador of a country not having one on condition of anonymity.
Asked about the reform during his first trip to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “very favorable to a moderate use of the right of veto”.
“The veto has probably been used too many times. In many circumstances it is used without a country’s vital interests existing.”
Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary Generalquoted by AFP
The project “do not aim at anyone”, assured the ambassador of Liechtenstein, Christian Wenaweser. “It is not directed against Russia”he insisted as the vote after more than two years of fruitless gestation coincided with the paralysis of the Security Council to stop the Russian invasion, due to Moscow’s right of veto.
The text is not binding and nothing prevents a country having used its veto from not coming to explain it to the General Assembly. Since 1946, Russia has used the right of veto 143 times, far ahead of the United States (86 times), the United Kingdom (30 times), China and France (18 times each).