Why it is important to abolish the right of veto in the UN and the EU

OPINION:

After the 2014 annexation of Ukrainian Crimea and Russian-funded and armed separatist uprisings, and the “concern” and “disquietude” of our Western allies, it became clear to me that the “new just world” paradigm is over. It was a paradigm based on respect for the rule of law and the recognition of freedom and human life as the highest values of the free world, and it has all crumbled away.

The end of the Cold War was supposed to be “the End of History,” as Francis Fukuyama phrased it. The collapse of the USSR left a nuclear program in the hands of Ukraine, which the international community pressured us into surrendering. An era based on mutual respect between states and negotiations through diplomacy instead of violence was expected. But no such era materialized. Furthermore, we find ourselves in a crisis where the goodwill and peace that we expected in the 1990s have vanished. 

At the heart of this crisis lies the inability of the U.N. to fulfill its most important task: peacekeeping.

My education in history has provided me with insight into this major issue — I can easily identify the exact reason for this. It is the abuse of rights on the part of states like Russia, with the most notable of these being the right to veto.

The veto, which was a compromise introduced during the creation of organizations such as the U.N., was labeled as a means of preventing a bloc of nations from ganging up against a single nation. However, it has now become an instrument of aggression by a single nation facing a bloc of like-minded allies. It has become the instrument of absolute evil, with oil and gas, the complete absence of any morality, with an indoctrinated population — an evil that seeks to bring everyone, even those across the ocean, to their knees.

Today, the world has received direct threats of evil’s use of nuclear weapons. In my opinion, this should finally open the eyes of people who believe that the killing of Ukrainians is one thing, and the killing of European Union citizens or residents of other NATO member countries is completely different.

I believe that today’s votes for the reform of the U.N., which we hear from world leaders, are a continuation of our calls to take the veto power away from the aggressor. The efforts of the EU to get rid of consensus as a mandatory condition for making all decisions in favor of voting by the majority of countries are a direct result of the realization of the worst consequences of using the veto.

In the dozens of meetings before submitting Ukraine’s application for EU membership, I defended the necessity of this in face-to-face conversations with presidents and prime ministers, and in public speeches in European parliaments.

We absolutely must take new steps to create a new world. The first is the elimination of veto rights in the UN and the EU.

Of course, for this to materialize, Russia must vote for this in the U.N. or Hungary in the EU. Although it might seem that we are trapped because of this, this is not the case. It means something else — countries that do not agree with evil must leave the old, incapable organizations such as the U.N. and create new ones.

This is a time for an effective and decisive change, a time to turn a new page of history, and a time to review and renew all our principles and commitments.

NATO troops can become peacekeepers in Ukraine, as NATO is an association of countries that hold human rights and the right to life in the highest regard. Are such rights limited only to those that live in a NATO member state? Are only citizens of NATO countries entitled to such rights?

But as I have said before, we have to start somewhere. I believe that after the direct threats to the world, made by a nuclear dictator, responsible leaders should immediately begin the discussion on how best to deprive Russia of its veto power, and to force a regime that brings death and destruction throughout Europe.

• Olena Kondratiuk is deputy chairwoman of the Ukrainian Parliament and head of the Ukrainian delegation at the G-20.