Vetoes in the U.N. Security Council have long been a sore point. Now they’re getting new scrutiny after Russia blocked a demand that it withdraw from Ukraine. One proposal would ask any veto-casting country to explain why to the U.N.’s full membership.
“This is really an important initiative,” said Thomas Weiss, a City University of New York Graduate Center political science professor and Chicago Council on Global Affairs distinguished fellow who specializes in U.N. politics. To him, the proposal promotes transparency and challenges the idea that a few powerful countries can tank Security Council initiatives without so much as an explanation.The proposal wouldn’t limit vetoes, but they would trigger public debates in the General Assembly.
It aims “to promote the voice of all of us who are not veto-holders, and who are not on the Security Council, on matters of international peace and security because they affect all of us,” said Liechtenstein’s U.N. ambassador, Christian Wenaweser. While the General Assembly got a broad membership and agenda, the council got more power. Its resolutions are legally binding, if sometimes ignored nonetheless, and can entail military action “to make every effort” not to let vetoes hinder prompt decision-making.
The Soviet Union/Russia has cast the most vetoes by far, followed by the United States. Fewer still have been cast by Britain, China and France.All that has engendered laments that the council’s sometime paralysis undermines its legitimacy and public faith in the U.N. And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has only brought those grievances more into focus.
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