UN General Assembly Needs the Right to Override the Veto of Permanent Security Council Member – President of Estonia

Giving the UN General Assembly the ability to collectively override the veto of a permanent member could be one of the steps towards improving the work of the Security Council, Estonian President Alar Karis believes. 

He said this in a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York, an Ukrinform reports.

‘The need to reform the UN and its Security Council has been discussed for decades... We must be more ambitious. The future Security Council must be fit for purpose, effective, transparent and accountable. It should also have a stronger decision-making capacity,’ Karis said. 

The President of Estonia noted that there is no simple formula for changes in the Security Council, but the possibility of using the veto should be limited. 

‘Estonia supports all efforts to limit the use of the veto, especially in relation to actions aimed at stopping mass atrocities,’ the Estonian leader said. 

According to him, the current system gives the veto holder too much power, which can lead to a deadlock in the search for a solution. This, in turn, leads to crippled lives and deaths. ‘We believe that all states, collectively, should have more voting power than one member of the UN Security Council... Let's use the powers of the General Assembly wisely. We here should be able to collectively override vetoes in the Security Council, if necessary,’ the Estonian leader said.

Karis proposed to discuss this and other possible ideas and proposals on how to make the UN more effective: ‘This will mean, among other things, that future UN peacekeeping operations will be more in line with reality.’

He also stressed that there is no alternative to the Peace Formula proposed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. ‘Russia must stop its aggression, withdraw its troops and military equipment from the territory of Ukraine. Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty must be restored,’ the Estonian president said.

The President of Estonia also demanded that Russia stop cynically and shamelessly using various conflicts to its advantage, fuelling contradictions in Europe, Africa and America, which disrupts the cohesion of the international community and creates instability.