New Delhi: With Russia vetoing a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Ukraine, the 15-member body will vote again Sunday, this time to call a rare emergency special session of the entire 193-member UN General Assembly.
This vote is procedural, meaning none of the five permanent UN members can exercise their vetoes. It only requires nine votes in favour and is likely to pass, diplomats told Reuters.
Since 1950, the General Assembly has convened only 10 such emergency sessions, a majority of which concerned the Israel-Palestine conflict.
However, there is a difference between resolutions passed in the Security Council versus in the General Assembly.
“When a resolution goes to vote in the General Assembly, none of the permanent five members can use their veto. However, unlike resolutions passed in the Security Council, these are non-binding on member states,” Vijay Nambiar, former UN Secretary General’s Special Advisor on Myanmar, told ThePrint.
However, such resolutions carry political weight, he added. “A similar thing happened during the liberation of Bangladesh. In December 1971, after the Soviet Union vetoed a resolution critical of India, it went to the General Assembly and they passed a resolution urging India and Pakistan to stop fighting and pull back their troops. Of course, this was not binding.”
The vote in the Assembly was 104 in favour to 11 against, with 10 abstentions. Pakistan, the US and China voted in favour while India, the Soviet Union and other East European countries voted against the resolution.
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What is a veto?
Put simply, a veto is a negative vote and is the most significant distinction between permanent and non-permanent members.
The UN Security Council, the most powerful organ of the international body, has 15 members: five permanent members or the P5 and 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms. The P5 members are China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US.
At present, the non-permanent members are Estonia, India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Niger, Norway, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam.
According to Article 27 (3) of the UN Charter, all substantive decisions of the Council must be made with “the concurring votes of the permanent members”. However, permanent members can block a draft resolution by using a veto to defend their national interests or to uphold a tenet of their foreign policy.
On some occasions, a country introduces a resolution in the UNSC and puts it to vote, aware that it would be vetoed. This is done to demonstrate symbolic support for an issue and to document the record of positions held within the council.
Following the vote of the resolution condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who sponsored the resolution, said Friday: “You cannot veto the truth. You cannot veto our principles. You cannot veto the Ukrainian people. You cannot veto the UN charter.”
Which P5 member has used the most vetoes?
The first veto ever recorded was on 16 February 1946, when the Soviet Union blocked a draft resolution regarding the withdrawal of foreign troops from Lebanon and Syria.
A total of 293 vetoes have been cast in the top UN body, according to data by non-profit Security Council Report. Russia/Soviet Union has almost half of the total number, with 143 vetoes. Since 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has been the most frequent user of the veto, followed by the US and UK.
The US has cast 83 vetoes, the first being cast in March 1970 when it, alongside the UK, rejected a resolution that would have condemned the UK for not using force to overthrow the white‐minority government of the former republic of Rhodesia.
The UK, meanwhile, has used the veto 32 times, the first such instance taking place in October 1956 during the Suez crisis.
France, which also used its veto on the Suez crisis resolution alongside the UK, had applied a veto for the first time on 26 June 1946. This with respect to whether the “Spanish Question” was a substantive or procedural issue.
The Spanish Question refers to the geopolitical and diplomatic circumstances between 1946 and 1955, on whether the UN should admit Spain into the organisation. However, Spain, was at the time ruled by dictator Francisco Franco who sympathised with the Axis powers, defeated in the Second World War.
China has used the veto the least out of all permanent members — just 16 times. However, it has become increasingly active on this front, casting 13 of its 16 vetoes since 1997.
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Do vetoes work in emergency sessions in General Assembly?
Vetoes cannot be applied during emergency special sessions in the General Assembly.
The resolution that allowed emergency special sessions to come into existence is known as the ‘Uniting For Peace’ resolution. It states that where the Security Council, “because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members”, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, the General Assembly shall “seize itself of the matter”.
The General Assembly, when not in session, can convene an emergency special session at the request of the Security Council or of a majority of its own members.
Then again, whatever measures adopted are non-binding, highlighting once again that the General Assembly can never be a full substitute for the Security Council in this area.
What about veto restraint in case of genocide, crimes against humanity?
Some member states have appealed for reforms in the UN, specifically for permanent members to exercise restraint of veto in cases of genocide. This remains an ongoing discussion in the UN.
After the 2005 World Summit, Costa Rica, Jordan, Liechtenstein, Singapore and Switzerland, collectively nicknamed the Small Five (S5) suggested permanent members “refrain … from using a veto to block Council action aimed at preventing or ending genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
In 2012, the S5 disbanded but its agenda was taken up by various other member states in the years following.
France and the UK have been the only two permanent members to show some form of support on this issue.
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