Lithuania Aims to Propose Abolishing Veto Right for UNSC Permanent Members

© AP Photo / KENA BETANCURMembers of UN Security Council vote on a draft resolution for establishing a tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the MH17 flight during a Security Council meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York on July 29, 2015.
Members of UN Security Council vote on a draft resolution for establishing a tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the MH17 flight during a Security Council meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York on July 29, 2015. - Sputnik International
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The five permanent members of the UNSC - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States - have the power to veto any resolutions brought before the Council. The five countries also have the power to veto potential candidates for the UN's highest post of secretary-general.

VILNIUS (Sputnik) — Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite will suggest depriving UN Security Council (UNSC) permanent members of their veto powers in extreme cases at the 70th session of the UN General Assembly, her press service said.

Grybauskaite intends to draw the attention of the world leaders "to the vetoed justice and the need for changes in the work of the UN Security Council, namely by abolition of the veto in cases of genocide, atrocities, crimes against humanity and war crimes," the president's press service said.

This photo taken on July 26, 2014 shows flowers, left by parents of an Australian victim of the crash, laid on a piece of the Malaysia Airlines plane MH17, near the village of Hrabove (Grabove), in the Donetsk region. - Sputnik International
Russia's Veto on MH17 Tribunal 'Helped Avert' World War
The United Nations' efforts to counter the current prevailing issues, including terrorism, the migrant crisis, as well as information and hybrid warfare, have brought little results, according to the Lithuanian president.

In July, Malaysia submitted a draft resolution to the UNSC calling for the creation of an independent UN tribunal to identify and prosecute those responsible for the MH17 disaster. Russia vetoed the proposal, saying that the tribunal might be aimed at concealing failures in the investigation and insisting that the official report into the crash, due in October, must be released before any further decisions could be made.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, center, raises his hand to cast a vote to veto - Sputnik International
Russia's UN Security Council Veto Power a Thorn in Washington's Flesh
Last week, Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Yuriy Sergeyev, said that 67 member states supported an initiative to end the right to veto.

Commenting on this claim, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said that stripping the UN Security Council’s five permanent members of their power to veto would destroy the well-designed system of checks-and-balances.

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