Russia begins its presidency of the UN Security Council on Saturday. The last time Russia was in charge of the mission was right before its attack on Ukraine.
World Russia, which is waging its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine for the second year, will be the head of the UN Security Council, which primarily strives for peace and security, from Saturday.
One could also consider the bleakness of the situation to be the fact that the Security Council, which is considered one of the most important bodies in terms of international peace and stability, is led by a country whose leader Vladimir Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Russia will be the chairman of the Security Council in its pre-arranged rotation. The chairmanship changes every month.
The activities of the Security Council have been criticized for years until now. It has been considered unattainable when, among its five permanent member countries, China and Russia, for example, have vetoed resolutions against their own interests. Other permanent members of the Security Council are the United States, Great Britain and France.
In the Security Council there are also ten other countries whose seats are recycled. However, rotating member states do not have the right to veto Security Council resolutions.
In the past, the composition of the permanent member countries of the Security Council has aroused a feeling of injustice, because it does not include, for example, the world’s most populous country India, or Germany or Japan.
And now the chairman will be Russia, whose leader many member countries consider a war criminal.
The Security Council has power, as its decisions bind all member countries. Although the chairmanship can be considered routine in part, the chairmanship is highlighted, for example, when a resolution should be consulted in crisis situations. The chairman can also leave issues out of the Security Council’s consideration.
The previous one Russia once chaired the Security Council at the start of the war of aggression, in February 2022.
“At that time, Russia tried to exploit the Security Council and mislead the world about the real intentions of the Russians”, remind Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Serhi Kislitsia in his writing In Time magazine.
The American CFR think tank Thomas Graham however, reminds that the tasks of the chairman are largely administrative, and the other member countries of the Security Council will take care that Russia is not able to pursue its own interests during its presidency.
Because of the war in Ukraine, there have already been calls for Russia to be expelled from the Security Council, which, according to Graham, would be almost impossible.
“It would require a vote in the Security Council, and Russia has veto power there. So this is not going to happen,” Graham stated for Euronews.
For example, the Helsinki Commission of the United States has called for the removal of Russia from the UN Security Council, because the war of aggression against Ukraine has violated the “Aims and Principles of the United Nations”.
The Helsinki Commission is a US governmental institution, which includes 21 members from the House of Representatives, the Senate and three ministries.
The name of the institution refers to the final document of the European Conference on Security and Cooperation, or ETC, signed in August 1975 in Helsinki, in which the signatory states undertook to respect the human rights of their citizens.
Russian the presidency has caused outrage, especially in Ukraine. The foreign minister of the country Dmytro Kuleban according to the chairmanship is “a bad joke”.
“Russia’s presidency of the Security Council starting on April 1 is a bad joke. Russia has usurped its place, and it is waging a war of conquest. The Russian leader is a war criminal and wanted by the ICC for child abduction. The world cannot be safe when Russia is in the Security Council,” Kuleba stated on Twitter.
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