The United Nations issues a resolution regarding the veto in the Security Council

Resolution 76/262, initiated by Liechtenstein, was adopted by the General Assembly United Nation (UN) adopted on April 26 without any objection, according to the announcement on Twitter by Mr. Abdulla Shahid, president of the 76th General Assembly.

The use of veto power of 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council, including the US, UK, France, Russia and China, has long been controversial and led to calls for a reform of the Security Council. This right makes any Security Council resolution rebuttable by a single vote from any of the five countries.

The UN General Assembly passed a resolution asking the five permanent members of the Security Council to justify the use of veto power. Twitter/@un_gpa

The newly adopted resolution does not remove or limit the veto power of the five countries mentioned above. But now, if any country votes veto, the General Assembly must convene a meeting and ask that country to justify the use of veto power.

Accordingly, within 10 working days of a country’s veto vote, the General Assembly must “hold a debate on the situation leading to that veto”. During this meeting, all UN member states can comment on this veto. The country using the veto will have priority on the list of statements.

However, this resolution is not binding and the country that has exercised its veto has the right to refuse to interpret it before the General Assembly.

According to one diplomat, the purpose of the resolution is to make veto countries “pay a higher political price” when they use their will to reject resolutions that are detrimental to them and their allies.

This resolution was proposed more than 2 years ago, but until Russia used its veto power to overturn resolutions related to hostilities in Ukraine Since the end of February, the new issue has been hotly discussed again. The resolution received the patronage of 83 countries, excluding Russia and China.

Liechtenstein’s ambassador to the UN, Christian Wenaweser, said that the resolution was created to “promote the voices of all of us, those without veto power and those that are not members of the Security Council, on the problems related to international peace and security because they affect all of us”.

However, Mr Wenaweser insisted the resolution was “not against anyone”, including Russia.

According to a statistic of Al Jazeera, Russia (and the former Soviet Union) is the country that used the veto the most with 119 times, from the first time the veto appeared in 1946 to February 25, 2022. Followed by the US – 82 times, the UK – 29 times, China and France – 16 times each.