New York / TEH: The Liechtenstein Mission to the United Nations announced the support of 57 member states of the General Assembly for its draft resolution in support of the United Nations system, which is known as the “Veto Initiative”.
This came in a message sent by the Political Coordinator of the Liechtenstein Mission, “Matt Edbroek”, at dawn on Wednesday, in an e-mail to journalists at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
The draft resolution calls for an automatic meeting of the members of the General Assembly (193 countries) each time the veto is used by any of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The political coordinator of the Liechtenstein mission said, in his letter, that “the draft resolution entitled (Permanent Mandate to hold a debate in the General Assembly when the veto is used in the Security Council) or what is also known as (the veto initiative) currently has the support of 57 member-states of the General Assembly.”
The draft resolution seen by The Eastern Herald digital newspaper states that “the President of the United Nations General Assembly shall call for a formal session of the Assembly within ten working days of the use of the veto by one or more permanent members of the Security Council, to hold a discussion on the case in which the veto was used, provided that the General Assembly does not meet in an emergency special session on the same subject.”
The text of the draft resolution grants “precedence in the list of speakers to the permanent member, or the permanent members of the Security Council who have exercised their veto.”
The draft resolution also calls for a “special report on the use of the veto in question to be submitted to the General Assembly at least 72 hours before the relevant debate.”
The draft resolution includes the item “the use of the veto” in the agenda of the 77th session of the General Assembly (that is, the next session of the General Assembly, which begins next September), and keeps it on the agenda of the General Assembly.
The draft resolution indicates that “in the event that the veto is used by one or more permanent members of the Security Council during the remainder of the seventy-sixth session of the General Assembly (that is, the current session and ends next September), the President of the General Assembly shall convene a formal meeting of the members of the Assembly. under the agenda item (Strengthening the United Nations system).
It is noteworthy that since 1946, all five permanent members (the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China) of the Security Council have used their veto right at one time on a variety of issues.
And what was formerly known as the Soviet Union (now Russia) ranked first in the use of the veto in the Council with 49 percent, followed by the United States with 29 percent, Britain with 10 percent, then China and France with 6 percent each.
The UN Security Council is composed of representatives of 15 member states of the UN General Assembly, including five permanent members (USA, Russia, Britain, France and China) with veto power.
Any change or reform in the Council’s working methods requires the approval of at least 9 member states, provided that there is no use of the veto by the five permanent members, which makes the process of reforming the Council difficult, despite the demands of many countries, led by Turkey.
