The president of the community institution sees “necessary and urgent” to reform the body in order to condemn a member who “unleashes an unprovoked and unjustifiable war”
The clamor grows in the UN to punish Russia for the aggression against Ukraine that has shaken the world, but also to reform the multilateral organizations that should have taken their toll. This Friday the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, described this reform as “necessary and urgent”.
As Russia is one of the five members with a permanent seat and the right to veto in the Security Council, in March it prevented this body dedicated to maintaining international peace and security from condemning it. This resolution had to be transferred to the plenary session of the General Assembly, which is much more democratic, as it is made up of the 193 member countries, but without a binding nature. It was clear to everyone that you cannot be both judge and jury. The question is how to fix this cardinal sin of the UN.
Michel believes that “when a permanent member of the Security Council unleashes an unprovoked and unjustifiable war, condemned by the General Assembly, his suspension from the Security Council should be automatic.” For many, this will be little, because the general consensus coincides with his opinion that “the current system is not inclusive and representative enough”, something that US President Joe Biden already said in his speech on Wednesday. But it is precisely the five countries that hold that privilege that have to give it up, and that will not be easy.
“A strong multilateral system requires mutual trust,” insisted the Belgian politician representing Europe. With his intervention, there are already three powers in favor of limiting that power – the US, France and the UK – which leaves the decision to Russia and China at a time when both countries are on the defensive. Their representatives will have the opportunity to speak tomorrow, Saturday, although from what they said on Thursday at a meeting of the Security Council, convened by France to discuss the crisis in Ukraine, that type of collaboration is not expected in the hypothetical reform of the UN.
war is everyone’s business
Russia maintains that the West was silent while aggression was committed against the pro-Russian population in the breakaway regions of Ukraine, with the help of the US. China says it is for peace, but insists that it does not intervene in the sovereign affairs of other countries. Michel believes this war is everyone’s business, blaming it for exacerbating the pandemic crisis and putting almost a fifth of humanity at risk of falling into poverty and famine.
To prevent a repeat of such a situation, he calls for “more food sovereignty”, especially for Africa and Latin America, and an investment effort in renewables that prevents other countries from using energy as a weapon of war again. The current moment is, in his opinion, a turning point in the history of humanity that once again validates Winston Churchill’s observation in 1946, in reference to the failure of the League of Nations to prevent World War II. «The League of Nations –precursor of the United Nations Organization– did not fail because of its principles or conceptions. It failed because those principles were abandoned by the States that founded it », he paraphrased. This is, for the UN, the moment of truth.
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