The UN was based to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of conflict,” Ms. Baerbock stated, however the world physique is struggling to fulfill that mandate when the Council is blocked by a veto from one among its 5 everlasting members: China, France, Russia, the UK and the US).
“Actual individuals, watching in actual time, could query the credibility and legitimacy of not solely the Safety Council, however of the UN in its entirety,” she instructed Member States.
State of play
Ms. Baerbock famous that the Council has been paralyzed on “essentially the most devastating conflicts”, together with crises mentioned earlier within the week
The Veto Initiative
Ms. Baerbock highlighted the Meeting’s Veto Initiative as a method the membership is making an attempt to reply.
- It requires an meeting debate each time a veto is solid within the Council.
- It permits the UN to point out that “even when dealing with a blockage within the Council” it nonetheless hears “the determined voices of these affected by these conflicts”.
- She pointed to the current New York Declaration on the Palestinian query, backed by 142 Member States, as proof of strengthened cross-regional cooperation.
What she’s saying
Ms. Baerbock urged the Meeting to think about increasing its position:
- Ought to new instruments be developed to “complement” the Initiative?
- Ought to the Meeting subject suggestions to battle events — and even to the Council — “if the Council is unwilling or unable to behave”?
- These questions, she stated, spotlight the necessity to see the UN “not solely as one physique however as a household collectively”.
Between the traces
Ms. Baerbock acknowledged thatit was “unlucky” that the Initiative was wanted in any respect, because it mirrored deeper dysfunction throughout the world physique. However she confused that it supplied an important area “to step in when wanted; to carry ourselves and one another to account; to exhibit intent and take motion”.
Actual world penalties
Ms. Baerbock’s name to motion will not be merely theoretical: vetoes have had profound penalties on individuals’s lives. For instance, in June 2025, the US vetoed a Safety Council decision that may have demanded an “speedy, unconditional and everlasting ceasefire” in Gaza — a textual content backed by 14 of the 15 members. The US defended its actions saying that the draft decision earlier than the Council didn’t condemn the actions of Hamas fighters in October 2023 who attacked and killed some 1,200 Israelis, sparking the continued conflict.
Equally, in February 2025, Russia vetoed amendments to a European-backed decision on Ukraine — together with one calling explicitly for respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and one other for a simply and lasting peace consistent with the UN Constitution. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
Context: The Veto Initiative
Established in April 2022 by a Common Meeting decision, the Initiative requires the Meeting to fulfill inside 10 working days of any veto within the Safety Council. It doesn’t override the veto, but it surely ensures a public and accountable debate on every use and its implications.
