Boot Russia from UN Security Council, US government agency says
The US government’s independent human rights and security watchdog is calling on the Biden administration to take immediate action to remove Russia as a permanent member of the UN Security Council after Russia hit civilian areas in Kiev and other major Ukrainian cities with missile strikes this week.
In a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, obtained by Foreign policythe bipartisan Helsinki Commission urged the United States to launch an objection to Russia’s status as a permanent member of the Security Council because it violates Ukraine’s sovereignty, which US President Joe Biden has said violates the UN Charter.
Under the long-term plan, Ukraine would provide credentials to a representative to gain a seat when the United States or another nation protests Russia’s status as a member of the Security Council, which stems from Moscow’s 1991 agreement to preserve the Soviet Union’s permanent status. a place after the collapse of the earth. It could force a vote on Russia’s ability to remain in the Security Council.
The US government’s independent human rights and security watchdog is calling on the Biden administration to take immediate action to remove Russia as a permanent member of the UN Security Council after Russia hit civilian areas in Kiev and other major Ukrainian cities with missile strikes this week.
In a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, obtained by Foreign policythe bipartisan Helsinki Commission urged the United States to launch an objection to Russia’s status as a permanent member of the Security Council because it violates Ukraine’s sovereignty, which US President Joe Biden has said violates the UN Charter.
Under the long-term plan, Ukraine would provide credentials to a representative to gain a seat when the United States or another nation protests Russia’s status as a member of the Security Council, which stems from Moscow’s 1991 agreement to preserve the Soviet Union’s permanent status. a place after the collapse of the earth. It could force a vote on Russia’s ability to remain on the Security Council.
“We urge you to initiate a process to replace Russia as the fifth permanent member of the UN Security Council,” Reps. Steve Cohen and Helsinki Commission Chairman and Member Joe Wilson wrote to Blinken. Wednesday. “Russia is not a responsible international actor, and it is not an inappropriate place in the UN Security Council. Also, it has no right to this place. Instead, it was delivered to Russia in an agreement made after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ukraine could and should be recognized to fill the place of the Soviet Union instead of Russia.”
The push also comes when Russia has faced criticism from UN member states in New York for a full-scale attack on Ukraine. The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to condemn Russia’s attempts to annex Ukrainian territory as illegal, in moves that underscored Moscow’s growing diplomatic isolation in the world body. Only four countries – North Korea, Belarus, Syria and Nicaragua – supported Russia, while 143 countries voted against it.
According to the 1991 agreement, Russia undertook to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbors. Belarus and Ukraine were two of the founding members of the UN and were also members of the Soviet Union since 1946, but since the pro-Moscow government of Belarus has “aided and abetted Russia in its war against Ukraine”, it must be considered “inappropriate”. for the position, Cohen and Wilson wrote to Blinken.
Ukrainian officials have also for months called for Russia’s expulsion from the Security Council, fearing it could use its veto power as one of the body’s five permanent members to avoid condemning Ukraine’s full-scale attack. Last month, before this week’s General Assembly vote, Russia your bet A draft Security Council resolution circulated by the United States and Albania called Moscow’s illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions a “threat to international peace and security.”
Ukraine’s push to expel Russia from the Security Council dates back to before the attack, but officials — right down to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — have expressed concern after Russian massacres, such as in the Kiev suburb of Bucha, out of fear of Russia. could further hinder efforts to condemn human rights violations.
“Where is the security that the Security Council was supposed to guarantee?” Zelenskyy asked in an impassioned speech to the Security Council when he visited Bucha in April. “Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to shut down the UN? Do you think the time for international order has passed?” (Zelensky repeated his appeal at the UN General Assembly in September).
There is a discussion about how easily Russia could be removed from the Security Council. For example, Ukraine could take Russia’s old seat, warmed by the Soviet Union. Security Council members could push through a nine-nation majority vote on Russia’s membership if the United States or another member supports a challenge by Ukraine’s representative to issue a proxy to fill the old Soviet seat. wrote Thomas Grant of the University of Cambridge.
But such a move could trigger a legal and political backlash. Since Ukraine was a charter member of the United Nations in 1946 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin added it after negotiating with Belarus in an effort to give Moscow more votes – there is little doubt that it could cause anything. claim Russia’s membership. Ukraine also supported Russia’s continued membership of the Soviet Union in the United Nations in 1991 after it entered the body as an independent state (Russia was not a member of the United Nations before the collapse of the Soviet Union). From a legal perspective startup Russia, which supports Ukraine, may demand a change to the UN charter, which has happened only five times in the world organization’s 76-year history.
And despite the vote earlier this week, and despite several current members of the UN Security Council voting to condemn Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in March, some experts are skeptical that the challenge to remove Moscow from the body would be politically successful. Russia has repeatedly received votes to continue sitting in other United Nations bodies, such as the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and experts said smaller nations — even those that have railed against Russia since February — may be concerned about the precedent that the U.S. could get permanent member to the Security Council.
“Many states are concerned about the general precedent of the US and its allies trying to exclude countries from UN forums,” said Richard Gowan, director of the UN’s International Crisis Group. Foreign policy in a telephone interview. “They fear that if Russia somehow gets rid of the Security Council, then in the future the West will start trying to throw smaller countries out of the UN bodies that it doesn’t like, or try to expel the rules of the UN Charter. smaller countries from the UN altogether.”
The US also appears to be looking for other options to deal with Russia’s intransigence in the Security Council. In his speech to the UN General Assembly last month, Biden proposed reforming the UN Security Council, but only talked about adding new members instead of removing one. “The United States supports increasing the number of both permanent and non-permanent representatives on the Council. This includes permanent seats for countries we have long supported and permanent seats for African countries [and] Latin America and the Caribbean, he said.
Although experts and diplomats widely agree that the current composition of the UN Security Council does not reflect the current world order, few believe that the five major powers of the UN Security Council – China and Russia – would unanimously approve the addition of new permanent members to the council.
If reforming the UN Security Council is indeed far off, Russia may have greased the wheels for more serious talks after launching its invasion of Ukraine in late February, prompting widespread international condemnation and making Putin a pariah on the world stage. Experts said Moscow put itself on shaky ground in the sham referendum on Ukrainian soil, opening itself up to a new round of condemnations.
“By challenging the principle of territorial integrity, the Russians succeeded in forcing many other countries to once again provide direct support to Ukraine,” Gowan said. “The Russians are in a pretty bad place diplomatically in New York right now.”