Ukraine calls for reforms to the UN Security Council
During the meeting of the UN General Assembly, the Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN, Eduard Fesko, stressed that the UN Security Council should be truly reformed because it cannot guarantee peace and security in the present conflicts.
"In its current form, the Council is ill-suited to effectively address Twenty-first Century challenges. While the United Nations procrastinates on Council reform, people are dying because the organ is simply incapable of helping them,” Fesko stressed.
He asserted that the experience of the Ukraine’s membership in the UN Security Council in 2016 to 2017 “only strengthened our confidence that without genuine reform, the Council will also lose its relevance and standing in the wider international context.”
"As the Assembly embarks on a new round of consultations through intergovernmental negotiations, this delegation is open to all progressive options and new approaches to Council reform, particularly those aimed at streamlining the negotiation process and making it more pragmatic and result oriented,” the diplomat stated.
More specifically, Fesko called for an additional seat to be allocated to the Group of Eastern European States in the category of elected members and he expressed support for all initiatives aimed at limiting the veto right of permanent Council members.
“Ukraine pays attention to two aspects: representation in the Eastern European regional group and the necessity of review of the role of veto in the work of the Council. When a permanent member of the Security Council is a participant of in the conflict about which the Security Council is going to make a decision, the veto becomes a direct impediment and an obstacle for the Council to implement its main mission for the maintenance of international peace and security,” said the permanent representative of Ukraine in the UN.