What is the right to veto in the UN Security Council that Zelensky asks to reform?

The United Nations General Assembly, which is being held these days in New York, is a meeting point in an international context marked by the War in Ukraine and tensions between Russia and Western countries.. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was invited to address the Security Council, where he called for a reform of the right to veto that would restrict this resource as much as possible, “especially in actions that tend to prevent atrocities.”. Their demands, however, did not have the presence of the main representatives of the five countries that, precisely, can exercise this right: the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom.

The right to veto exercised by Russia in the Security Council has been the tool that has tied the UN hand and foot when it comes to intervening or even condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.. What functions does the Security Council have and what exactly is the right to veto?

What is the UN Security Council

In 1944, at the end of World War II and with the imminent defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis forces, the Allies held several conferences to decide, as winners of the war, the fate of the world after the conflict and under the pretext of an increasingly evident Cold War that would come after the war. The Dumberton Oaks, Yalta and Potsdam conferences suggested the possibility of creating a world organization and a council within it.. Thus the United Nations was born in 1945, whose Charter signed at the San Francisco Conference includes the existence of this new Security Council.

This UN Security Council was established, according to the United Nations Charter, as an organ to “ensure prompt and effective action by the United Nations” to which the organization confers “the primary responsibility for maintaining peace and security international”.

The winners of the Second World War, which were then attributed “an important role in the maintenance of international peace and security” were integrated into the Council as permanent members with the right to veto any provision: they were the United States, France, China, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union (now Russia)

Fifteen countries and five permanent members

The five permanent members maintain their status on the Council today. Added to them are ten “non-permanent” members, five of whom are elected each year by the General Assembly to cover a two-year period on the Council, according to article 23 of the Charter.

Currently, the Security Council is made up, in addition to the five permanent members, of Ghana, Gabon, Mozambique, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Brazil, Ecuador, Malta, Switzerland and Albania.

The Security Council fulfills certain functions, included in the founding document, aimed at maintaining peace and security at the international level, as well as detecting threats, urging the application of sanctions, regulating weapons or even undertaking military actions.. However, the permanent members have a 'veto right' that they can use to stop UN provisions and that they can use according to their interests.

What is the right to veto

In order to ensure that the Security Council acted under the pretext of agreement of all its members and unanimously, the five permanent members secured a veto power.

In the Security Council, each member state has one vote, and decisions are made from a majority of nine affirmative votes.. However, the right to veto gives the permanent members decisive power: the negative vote of one of them means that a resolution or decision of the Council is not approved.. Nothing can be approved if all the permanent members of the Security Council do not agree.

Russia has vetoed all resolutions against it

The veto power of the permanent members has posed a dilemma, since while the Security Council is a decisive tool for peace, its regulations allow the permanent members to veto any provision, decision or resolution that may affect them.. This strategy is precisely what Russia has used, which has used its veto to prevent any Council resolution or condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine.

In this sense, Zelensky has requested a temporary expulsion of Russia from the Security Council, considering that it is a member that violates the founding charter of the UN, something that will once again fall on deaf ears thanks, precisely, to that veto power.