: Opinion: The veto problem plaguing the UN #IndiaNEWS #News By Emma McClean, Aidan Hehir The day after Russian troops crossed the border to begin their invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations Security

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Opinion: The veto problem plaguing the UN #IndiaNEWS #News
By Emma McClean, Aidan Hehir
The day after Russian troops crossed the border to begin their invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations Security Council drafted a resolution condemning the invasion and calling on Russia to withdraw unconditionally. What happened next was predictable enough: Russia vetoed the resolution.
As one of five permanent members of the Security Council (P5), Russia has veto powers over any resolution put to the UN. While the UN Charter chargesthe Security Council with primary responsibility for international peace and security, any action requires the affirmative vote of the P5. A negative vote is, in effect, a veto.
The “veto problem� has plagued the UN since its inception and efforts have been made over the years to reform this. One or another of the P5 – the US, Russia, China, the UK and France – has always stymied those efforts in the past. But now, thanks to some imaginative thinking by the UN General Assembly, there is at least some progress in this area.
From now on, the General Assembly will automatically review any use of the veto by any of the P5. Within ten days of casting its veto, the P5 state is “invited� to justify its use of the veto before the General Assembly.
The problem of the veto has been a bleeding sore for the UN, effectively dashing hopes and expectations of using the United Nations to maintain a truly collective security. While France and the UK have not formally used their veto since 1989, Russia and the US continue to deploy it and China, having only used it once during the Cold War, has used it 13 times since 1990.
Unsurprisingly, there have been numerous proposals to solve the veto problem – most of which got no further than policy exhortations. By contrast, the most recent proposal for a review of veto use – launched in early April – gathered sufficient momentum not only to be debated, but to be “adopted by consensus� – reflecting the agreement of the entire General Assembly – in less than a month.
The invasion of Ukraine galvanised UN action to address the veto problem and the spectre of Security Council inertia in the face of pressing crises.
General Assembly Resurgent
The UN General Assembly has been innovative when filling the void left by the inaction of the Security Council. Of note here is the 1950 Uniting for Peace procedure, adopted by the General Assembly in response to Security Council inaction on the Korean crisis. It also aided the birth of UN peacekeeping as the General Assembly recommended action following a double veto by France and the UK in respect of the Suez Crisis.
But it has been used sparingly since 1950 as it is only triggered upon a request of any nine states of the 15 members of the Security Council.

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