Kuwait calls for curb on use of UN vetoes to reform Security Council

Manama: Kuwait has called for confining the use of vetoes to matters listed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter as part of an ongoing effort to reform the UN Security Council.

The chapter sets out the UN Security Council's powers to maintain peace and allows the Council to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and to take military and nonmilitary action to "restore international peace and security".

"The State of Kuwait strongly supports the reform and activation of all of the United Nations bodies, mainly the Security Council, to enable it to carry out its functions as mandated by the Charter, and that is the maintenance of international peace and security," Yaqoub Al Sanad, from Kuwait's Permanent Mission to the UN, said.

However, the Kuwaiti diplomat said that changes in the composition of the Council "must not affect its capability and effectiveness in taking decisions to confront international threats and dangers, and must instead lend more legitimacy and credibility to the Council's resolutions."

The Security Council has 15 members, five veto-wielding permanent members (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States) and ten elected non-permanent members with two-year terms. Calls for reforms have varied from expanding the Council to eliminating the veto.

"We support all the proposals aiming to lend more transparency and clarity to the work of the Council, including the easy flow of information to and from the member states of the United Nations. We also support the need to totally respect the functions and the competence of the other main bodies especially the General Assembly, and to define the role of the Council in considering the issues that threaten international peace and security," Al Sanad was quoted as saying by Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA).

The diplomat said there was a necessity to codify the measures taken by the Security Council to improve its working mechanisms without waiting for an agreement on other issues such as the size and the composition of the Council.

"We also support the maintenance of the mechanism of electing the non-permanent members of the Council since this offers a better chance to the group of small states to become members of the Council and participate in its work," he said.

More than 65 years after the UN was established, around 25 per cent of the UN member states are still waiting to sit on the Council.

"Should there be an increase in the number of non-permanent members, ample consideration should be given in the regional groups distribution to the surge in the number of states in the Asian group," Al Sanad said.