Ban Ki-moon: UN Security Council still blocked by Russia’s veto power

Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary-General, understands the disappointment of people all over the world with UN’s inability to react to the aggression of a UN Security Council permanent member against another country because of veto power.

“I perfectly well understand the disappointment of people all over the world, not to mention those countries on whose territory one of the UN Security Council permanent members wages aggression. The international mechanism did not manage to somehow react to it due to veto power,” Ban Ki-moon said at a briefing in Kyiv when asked why the aggressor state is still a permanent member of the UN Security Council, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

He noted that the UN member states had been discussing the reform of the UN Security Council for the past 20 years, but this reform “has not moved a single step” as the UN Security Council permanent member states do not want to create certain restrictions on the veto power. In this context, the former UN Secretary-General noted that the implementation of the reform required the consent of all UN Security Council permanent members.

At the same time, according to him, this does not mean that the UN does nothing, since this international structure has made a powerful contribution to ensuring the protection of human rights, as well as promoting the Sustainable Development Goals and environmental protection.

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“Certain things should have been done even during my tenure as Secretary-General. And now we see this terrible situation with the violation of human rights, killing of people. I really hope that the member states will take very seriously the issue of how the UN system can respond to the expectations of the international community,” said Ban Ki-moon.

As reported, on April 26, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution requiring the Security Council permanent members to justify their use of veto power.