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United Nations Security Council

The document provides information about the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 3 paragraphs. It discusses the establishment of the UNSC, its members including the 5 permanent members, and the veto power of permanent members. It notes the UNSC has faced criticism for being undemocratic due to the veto power and for its membership not being representative of the current global situation.

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AMINA JADOON
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136 views4 pages

United Nations Security Council

The document provides information about the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 3 paragraphs. It discusses the establishment of the UNSC, its members including the 5 permanent members, and the veto power of permanent members. It notes the UNSC has faced criticism for being undemocratic due to the veto power and for its membership not being representative of the current global situation.

Uploaded by

AMINA JADOON
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ASSIGNMENT # 1

INRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

SUBMITTED BY:

Amina Jadoon

SUBMITTED TO:

Sir RIZWAN SHARIF

DEPARTMENT:

Mathematics

SUBMISSION DATE:

10th January, 2017.

FATIMA JINNAH WOMEN UNIVERSITY


UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL

United Nations Security Council is one of the six organs of UN established with the primary
purpose of maintaining International peace and security. The Council takes initiative in
determining threat to peace or an act of aggression and calls upon parties to settle disputes
in a peaceful manner. Under certain conditions the Council has the power to impose
sanctions and use force for sake of maintaining international peace.

ESTABLISHMENT OF UNSC:

On January 1st 1942 US President Roosevelt, Prime Minister of Britain Winston


Churchill, Maxim Litvinov, of the USSR, and T. V. Soong, of China, signed a short document
which later came to be known as the United Nations Declaration. A day later the
Declaration was signed by 22 other nations. In mid 1944 the delegations from USSR, US, UK
and China met at Dumbarton Oaks Mansion in Washington DC to develop organizational
plans for UN. On April 25 th, 1945 the UN Conference on International Relations was held in
San Francisco. It was attended by 50 governments in order to draft the UN Charter. The UN
officially came into existence on 24 th October, 1945 upon confirmation from five permanent
members (USSR, UK, US, China and France) and majority of 46 signatories. On 17 th January,
1946 the Security Council had its first meeting at Church House, Westminster in London,
United Kingdom.

MEMBERS:

The Council consists of 15 members five permanent and 10 non permanent.

The five permanent members in the Security Council are known as P5 or Big Five. P5
consists of five governments namely Russia, China, France, United Kingdom and United
States. The members represent five great powers of the world and are regarded as victors
of World War II. Only P5 are officially recognized as "Nuclear-Weapon States" under the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) though there are other states which also posses
nuclear weapons. In the first two decades the Council had 6 non permanent members
which were increased to 10 in 1965. The non permanent members are selected for a two
year term and hold their seat on a rotating basis by geographical region.

VETO POWER:

Veto is a Latin word which means “I forbid”. In context of law it is the power to reject a
decision or proposal made by a law making body. In UN Security council permanent
members are given the power to Veto (reject) a resolution. There are two kinds of matter
the Council must vote on. One is called Procedural matter. It requires 9 votes out of 15 from
the members. Other is called Substantive matter which also requires 9 votes out of 15 but
there shouldn’t be any negative veto from a permanent member. Negative Veto of a
permanent member on Substantive matter prevents its adoption. However absence of
permanent member from a vote does not prevent its adoption. Because of this voting
procedure Substantive matters are very hard to get by.

USE OF VETO:

Since Security Council’s inception 269 Vetoes have been cast.

Country Number of vetoes Comments


USSR/Russia 128 Most common user of Veto. Vetoed most of
resolutions in first two decade.
United States 89 Has frequently used Veto after 1972.
United Kingdom 32 Uses its Veto less often. Hasn’t used Veto since
1989.
China(ROC/PROC) 9 Country with the least number of Vetoes.
France 18 Uses its Veto sparingly. Hasn’t Vetoed any
resolution since 1976.

CRITICISM:

UNSC has faced a lot of criticism regarding use of Veto power. Only permanent five
members of Security Council have Veto power. They can Veto any substantive resolution
which halts the resolution from being adopted even if it is the opinion of majority of the
countries. This feature of UNSC is seen by most of the critics as undemocratic.

It has also been criticized for Nuclear Power. Under NPT only P5 are officially recognized as
Nuclear Powers. Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea also posses nuclear weapons but
they are not officially recognized as nuclear states. P5 have created a nuclear club for
themselves which gives them unlimited powers with no one to check and balance.

Membership is another common criticism faced by UNSC. It is believed that number of


members (permanent and non permanent) on the Security Council should be increased as
political and economic situation around the globe has changed. G4 nations (Germany, India,
Japan and Brazil) demand a permanent seat in UNSC.

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