Tag: Security Council

UN Gets New President

This is one for the “Got to be kidding” file.

Within the United Nations there is the ever powerful Security Council and recently Russia has become the president of the Council…..

Russia is once again the head of the UN Security Council, a body tasked with ensuring international peace.

The last time that Russia held the position of president — in February 2022 — it invaded Ukraine, the BBC noted.

The UN Security Council is made up of 15 members, 10 of which are voted in for two-year stints. The other five are permanent members and have veto power. They are the United States, France, the UK, China, and Russia.

The 15 members rotate the presidency every month. The president of the Security Council is considered the face of the body and represents it in front of the larger United Nations.

While Ukraine protested Russia’s term as president, as a permanent member, there is little any of the other members can do. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-is-again-the-president-of-un-security-council-2023-4

There is the whole problem in a nutshell…..5 permanent members that have veto power…..nothing can be accomplished as long as the idiots in the US, Russia, France, England and China have the power to stop any progress dead in its tracks.

Since the last time Putin was in charge Russia invaded Ukraine….how will this play out in the social media BS?

What was said from the White House?

From the White House podium on Thursday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that a country that “flagrantly violates the U.N. Charter” and invades its neighbor has no place on the council, but there is “no feasible international legal pathway” around that.

“As unpalatable as it may be to see Russia presiding over the council, the reality is this is a largely ceremonial position which rotates to council members month by month in alphabetical order,” she said, adding that the U.S. encourages Russia to conduct itself professionally so the council can carry out its work.

“Russia is a permanent member,” said one council diplomat. “While they are misbehaving gravely on Ukraine and just tearing the [U.N.] Charter apart, my expectation is they will do this presidency in a professional manner.”

Thoughts?

Enough is enough.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

UN Security Council Veto

While the conflict rages in Ukraine….and the idiots here in the US like MTG and Trump and Gaetz mouth their lunacies there is a big story on the international stage…..the UN.

There are 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council and all it takes to kill any legislation is one member to veto the action.

How moronic is that?

First we should ask why 5 permanent members?

The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (also known as the Permanent Five, Big Five, or P5) are the five sovereign states to whom the UN Charter of 1945 grants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

According to Oppenheim’s International Law : United Nations, “Permanent membership in the Security Council was granted to five states based on their importance in the aftermath of World War II.”

It is the 21st century and those dark days of WW2 are gone….time to re-think the Security Council.

The UN is doing just that…..

The United Nations is on Tuesday set to debate a provision that would require the five permanent members of the body’s Security Council – the United States, United Kingdom, France, China and Russia – to justify invoking their veto powers.

The reform to the Security Council has been floated for years at the UN but has regained new traction following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Currently, the five permanent members can veto any resolutions put forth by the Security Council. Meanwhile, the rotating 10 other members have no such power.

The latest proposal, put forth by Liechtenstein, is co-sponsored by 50 countries including the US. No other permanent members are currently co-sponsors, although France has indicated it will support the move, according to the AFP news agency.

The text of the proposal, obtained by the AFP, calls for the 193 members of the General Assembly to gather “within 10 working days of the casting of a veto by one or more permanent members of the Security Council, to hold a debate on the situation as to which the veto was cast”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/19/un-to-debate-security-council-permanent-member-veto-power

This is a major item for accountability….but most people will ignore this simply because they hate the UN for whatever reason….but I think that hatred is misplaced and I have let my thoughts on it be known…..

Why Hate The United Nations (UN)?

After WW2 and the founding of the UN much has happened……

World War II demonstrated this ugliness in the Holocaust and in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From Hiroshima and the Holocaust rose two mighty movements, one for peace and against the perils of further nuclear attacks, and the other for an end to the divisions of humanity and for a nonalignment from these divisions. The Stockholm Appeal of 1950, signed by 300 million people, called for an absolute ban on nuclear weapons. Five years later, 29 countries from Africa and Asia, representing 54 percent of the world’s population, gathered in Bandung, Indonesia, to sign a 10-point pledge against war and for the “promotion of mutual interests and cooperation.” The Bandung Spirit was for peace and for nonalignment, for the peoples of the world to put their efforts into building a process to eradicate history’s burdens (illiteracy, ill health, hunger) by using their social wealth. Why spend money on nuclear weapons when money should be spent on classrooms and hospitals?

Despite the major gains of many of the new nations that had emerged out of colonialism, the overwhelming force of the older colonial powers prevented the Bandung Spirit from defining human history. Instead, the civilization of war prevailed. This civilization of war is revealed in the massive waste of human wealth in the production of armed forces—sufficient to destroy hundreds of planets—and the use of these armed forces as the first instinct to settle disputes. Since the 1950s, the battlefield of these ambitions has not been in Europe or in North America, but rather it has been in Africa, Asia, and Latin America—areas of the world where old colonial sensibilities believe that human life is less important. This international division of humanity—which says that a war in Yemen is normal, whereas a war in Ukraine is horrific—defines our time. There are 40 wars taking place across the globe; there needs to be political will to fight to end each of these, not just those that are taking place within Europe. The Ukrainian flag is ubiquitous in the West; what are the colors of the Yemeni flag, of the Sahrawi flag, and of the Somali flag?

Now is the Time for Nonalignment and Peace

I believe that the world would be better off without these powers of veto in the hands of a single nation.

All nations need to be held to the same standard and the elimination of this silly veto power would be a great step forward.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”