Chorus grows louder for overhaul of UN Security Council amid failure to stop Ukraine invasion
- Ukraine leader Zelensky’s futile call for Russia to be expelled from the Council has put renewed focus on reforming the body which has been denounced for its failures
- Beyond the lack of international balance among the UNSC members, the forum grants a near-monopoly on some issues to the US, Britain and France
Recently Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a blistering call for the UN to exclude Russia from the Security Council, asked bluntly, “Are you ready to close the UN” and abandon international law. “If your answer is no, then you need to act immediately.”
And after the Security Council failed to prevent the brutal invasion of his country, he said in a separate address to Japanese lawmakers, “We have to develop a new tool” capable of doing so.
Created in 1945 with a vision of guaranteeing world peace and preventing a world war III, the United Nations conferred disproportionate power on the five permanent, veto-wielding members of the Security Council – the US, Russia, China, Britain and France – in a way that allows them to protect their own interests while keeping a heavy hand in world affairs.
Thus, since 2011, Moscow has exercised its Security Council veto some 15 times in votes regarding its ally Syria.