UN veto power

The foreign ministers of the five veto powers with the UN Secretary General in 2013 in New York. Left to right: William Hague , Laurent Fabius , Sergei Lavrov , Ban Ki-moon , John Kerry and Wang Yi .

Number of vetoes of the five permanent members of the Security Council from 1946 to 2007.

A UN veto power is a state belonging to the United Nations that has the right to use the right of veto in decisions of the Security Council in accordance with Art. 27 III of the UN Charter . If that happens, the decision will not be made.

The veto system was established to protect the interests of the founding members of the United Nations who emerged victorious from World War II . Five states are permanent members of the Security Council and have this right:

•  United States of America
•  People's Republic of China (since 1971); previously the Republic of China on Taiwan 
•  Russian Federation (since 1991); previously Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 
•  French Republic
•  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Most vetoes were vetoed by Russia (including the Soviet Union) until 2007, namely 123, followed by the USA with 82. Great Britain vetoed 32, France 18 and China 11.

Compulsory abstention

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According to Art. 27 (3) of the UN Charter, members of the Security Council must abstain when it comes to the peaceful settlement of disputes in which the member is a party. The permanent members cannot then exercise their veto.

An example of such an abstention was the United Kingdom in the 1947 vote on the Corfu Canal incident . Despite being a party, the veto was exercised, for example, in 1968 by the USSR on the resolution on the invasion of Czechoslovakia , in 1976 by France in the annexation of Mayotte, and in 1986 by the USA in condemning its bombing of Libya .

Web links

Commons : UNO veto power  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Global Policy Forum (2008): Changing Patterns in the Use of the Veto in the Security Council , accessed February 19, 2012.
2. ^ Veto powers agree on Iran sanctions. spiegel.de, accessed on February 19, 2012 . 
3. ↑ The Security Council - Facts and Analysis. crp-infotec.de, accessed on May 8, 2018 . 
4. ^ Jan Wouters, Tom Ruys: Security council reform: a new veto for a new century? , Academia Press, 2005, p. 12 f.