Published 25 February 2023

Global Risks by Dr. Ziva Rozen-Bakher

Global Risks aims to Stimulate Thinking ‘Out of the Box’ about Ongoing Global Problems that have no clear Solutions.

United Nations: Rubber Stamp?

• UN Security Council (UNSC)

  • Is the UNSC a Rubber Stamp under the Veto Right of Superpowers?

  • Is the Permanent Members of the UNSC reflect the current Global Political Power?

• UN General Assembly

  • Is the UNGA functions as a Democratic Body?

  • Are the Votes in UNGA should be secret like in democratic elections?

  • Should the Decisions of UNGA be binding?

UNSC UNSC List - Dr. Rozen-Bakher’s Twitter Lists to Identify Risks for FDI and International Trade

The Veto Right became a farce in the UNSC. Again and again, one of the superpowers protects one of the ‘Bad Boys’. The USA protects the ‘Bad Boy’, Israel, regarding Palestine. Russia protects the ‘Bad Boy’, Syria, while China protects the ‘Bad Boy’, North Korea, yet UK and France keep on low profile in the hope that no one will complain that they are no more superpowers. Under this farce, no surprise that most of the significant votes in the UNSC ended in Veto, while the insignificant votes ended with something that in most cases no one really pay attention to them. Thus, under this reality, what is the meaning of the UNSC? Still, the big question is how we can transform the UNSC into a significant body at the geopolitics level.

First, we need to change the structure of the UNSC. The current framework of permanent members is based on the geopolitics order from the end of WWII without taking into account the current global order. Hence, USA, Russia, and China should keep their positions as a permanent members of the UNSC, while UK and France not. Instead, the EU as a bloc should be a permanent member of the UNSC, because the EU bloc is de-facto superpower, yet it may be complicated because, regarding each UNSC vote, the EU bloc may need to get the approval of all EU countries. Perhaps, additional Blocs could be also permanent members of the UNSC, such as the African Union.

Nevertheless, the big bumper is the Veto Right that protects the ‘Bad Boys’, and the facto makes the UNSC a Rubber Stamp. If all superpowers will agree that no one is above the Binding of the UNSC, then a ‘Big Majority’ or at least ‘Two Against’ can be a good alternative to the Veto Right.

UN General Assembly (UNGA) United Nations List - Dr. Rozen-Bakher’s Twitter Lists to Identify Risks for FDI and International Trade

If we look at the UNGA, then we have a big problem with the ‘Open Vote’ that makes the UNGA a non-democratic body. To illustrate it, Is an Open Vote in Elections can be considered a democratic election? Obviously, not. The ‘Secret Vote’ allows making a vote without the fear of pressure and negative implications. A strong country or a big country or an independent country has no problem revealing its position via the ‘Open Vote in the UN votes, while a small country or a weak country or a dependent country chooses too many times to ‘Not Vote’ in significant votes of UNGA (see example below) or even to vote Abstained instead of Against or Favour, because of the concern that their vote may complicate them with one of the superpowers. Hence, the UNGA should avoid ‘Open Vote’, while regularly making ‘Secret Vote’, resulting in democratic decisions of the UNGA that reflect the real position of each country, instead of fear via ‘Not Voted’ or Abstained or even via Force Vote, either Favour or Against.

However, the most critical issue is the Not Binding of UNGA’s votes. Under this reality, the UNGA is a meaningless body that can not influence anything. A perfect Rubber Stamp. Hence, the votes of UNGA should be Binding, yet it should be based on a significant majority, rather than on a simple majority, such as at least 60-70% majority to have a Binding decision.

To summarise, currently, the UNSC and UNGA are symbolic important bodies, but de-facto meaningless bodies. The UNSC and UNGA have no ability to influence critical issues, which increases global instability and even the risk to the existence of the UN in the long-run. Only change in the structure and framework will make the UN an important body that can stabilize the global arena.

Further Suggested Reading

• The United Nations in the 21st Century | Karen A. Mingst, Margaret P. (taylorfrancis.com)

• The Law and Practice of the United Nations: Fifth Revised Edition - Benedetto Conforti, Carlo Focarelli - Google Books

• Politics and Process at the United Nations (degruyter.com)

• The United Nations in: Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations Volume 26 Issue 2 (2020) (brill.com)

• Precedent and doctrine in organisational decision-making: the power of informal institutional rules in the United Nations Security Council’s activities on terrorism | SpringerLink

• Decision-Making in the United Nations General Assembly: A Comprehensive Database of Resolutions, Decisions, and Votes (repec.org)

• Innovating to Restrain the Use of the Veto in the United Nations Security Council Atrocity Prevention: The Role of International Law and Justice: Challenges to the Security Council Veto 52 Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 2020 (heinonline.org)

• United Nations Security Council Permanent Membership and the Veto Problem Atrocity Prevention: The Role of International Law and Justice: Challenges to the Security Council Veto 52 Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 2020 (heinonline.org)

• Beyond the Veto in: Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations Volume 27 Issue 1 (2021) (brill.com)

• Veto Provision in UN Charter on JSTOR

• Mission: Impossible? Reforming the UN Charter to Limit the Veto in: Journal of International Peacekeeping Volume 25 Issue 2 (2022) (brill.com)

• Consequences of Veto Powers in UNSC: Need for Reforms 27 Supremo Amicus 2021 (heinonline.org)

• In the name of democracy: UNSC reform at the intersection of discourse and governmentality - Bjarke Zinck Winther, Laura Bang Lindegaard, 2021 (sagepub.com)

• Controlling International Institutions: How the US Engineered UNSC Non‐permanent Members in the Early Cold War - Balci - 2022 - Global Policy - Wiley Online Library

• Resolving the Dilemma of UNSC Reform: Survival: Vol 63, No 2 (tandfonline.com)

An Example of ‘Not Voted’ in UN votes. The ‘Not Voted’ regarding Ukraine War became a soft tool for ‘Against’ or ‘Abstain’ by the allies of the Russia-China Coalition, with the aim of avoiding pressure from the members of the USA Coalition. However, if a secret vote was taken place, then what were the results? Likely, that the ‘Not Voted’ transformed to Against, while some Favour transformed to Abstained. Under the current ‘Open Vote’, countries did not reveal thier ‘True Position’.