The United Nations was established following World War II in order to prevent war, maintain peace between nations; ensure equal rights between men and women, and of nations large and small. The Unanimous Consent clauses of the United Nations Charter establishes a permanent inequality between nations. That inequality has prevented the United Nations from maintaining the peace from the day it was created. The United Nations Charter is a fundamentally flawed document that needs to be corrected through the amendment process defined in the charter. Until those corrections are made, the United Nations needs to operate in accordance with and ensure enforcement of the current charter as written.
True peace can only come from the rule of just laws equally applied to all. We need to follow what little International Law the charter and treaties provide, and comply with the charter as it is written. The war in Ukraine has interrupted world food supplies, disrupted the world economy, and diverted the worlds attention from major global problems for far to long. It is time for the United Nations to do its job, follow its own rules, and end this war. The Russian Federation is the aggressor in Ukrainewhich has already been acknowledged by the General Assembly. UN General Assembly Resolution 11/1 condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and demanded a full withdrawal of Russian forces. One hundred forty one member states supported that resolution. In addition, the International Criminal Court has issued an international warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin. It is time for all nations to insist on Security Council compliance with the current United Nations Charter as written and take steps to end this war. A copy of the full text of the current charter is available for anyone to read at: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/full-text.
Article 23 Paragraph 1 states: Article 23 1. The Security Council shall consist of fifteen Members of the United Nations. The Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America shall be permanent members of the Security Council. The General Assembly shall elect ten other Members of the United Nations to be non-permanent members of the Security Council, due regard being specially paid, in the first instance to the contribution of Members of the United Nations to the maintenance of international peace and security and to the other purposes of the Organization, and also to equitable geographical distribution. The United Nations Charter has been amended 5 times, non of those amendments addressed any change to permanent membership of the Security Council. In accordance with the current United Nations Charter, the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China are not members of the security council and have no right to vote on Security Council matters. The permanent membership provision of Article 23 was never amended, even though the USSR no longer exists and the PROC was not a party to the original United Nations Charter and did not even exist when the United Nations was created.
Article 27 paragraph 3 reads: Decisions of the Security Council on all other matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of nine members including the concurring votes of the permanent members; provided that, in decisions under Chapter VI, and under paragraph 3 of Article 52, a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting. Even if the Russian Federation was a legitimate member of the Security Council, Article 27 paragraph 3 would require them to abstain from any votes on the Ukraine War because they are a party to the dispute. The charter needs to be enforced as written!
In accordance with Article 5 of the United Nations Charter all rights and privileges of membership in the United Nations should be suspended for the Russian Federation until the following conditions are met:
1. All Russian Federation troops and personnel are withdrawn from Ukraine.
2. The peace is restored in Ukraine.
3. Ukraine’s sovereignty is restored to it’s original 1991 boundaries.
4. All members of the Russian Federation for whom a warrant has been issued by the International Criminal Court have been arrested and turned over to, or surrendered to, the International Criminal Court for prosecution.
A functional United Nations and a functional United Nations Security Council are essential to world peace, equal justice under the rule of law, and the survival of our species. If we cannot hold our international leaders and decision makers accountable for their actions; aggression, war and nuclear war are inevitable.
We need a two pronged approach to ending the war in Ukraine. Sanctions do not work well, and providing armament to Ukraine simply encourages others to provide armament to the Russian Federation which will drag the war out for years to come. Enforcing the UN Charter and denying the Russian Federation all rights and privileges of membership in the United Nations will destabilize Russia, send a clear message to the Russian people, and impact the upcoming elections in the Russian Federation. It will also send a very clear message to other netions that would follow Russia’s example. The time has come to end the war in Ukraine, eliminate the Unanimous Consent Clauses from the United Nations Charter, and bring the charter up to date.