Kyslytsya: UN needs fundamental reforms

15.07.2020 16:21

Ukrinform

The United Nations and the UN Security Council in particular need fundamental reforms to prevent manipulating of veto powers by certain Security Council permanent members, who are de facto parties to armed conflict.

"The membership and approval of decisions in the Security Council was based on the ‘Yalta Formula’, a tool for legitimizing the exclusive rights of great powers to rearrange the world. Now, it is better known as the veto power," Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya said in an exclusive interview with Ukrinform.

He stressed that the USSR and now Russia had used a veto power more often than other states. This suggests that Moscow views the UN and its Charter "exclusively from a consumer’s point of view," the diplomat said.

"Can we expect that Russia, as a party to the armed conflict in Ukraine or Georgia, or as a country playing a destructive role in Syria, not to prevent the UN Security Council from responding adequately to the situation? The answer is obvious," the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN said.

Therefore, according to him, Ukraine and many other states "speak of the need for fundamental reform of the UN, and its Security Council in particular."

"There are different opinions on how to prevent the abuse of veto power, but, unfortunately, they have not been implemented so far," the diplomat said.

At the same time, Kyslytsya stressed that he was not skeptical about the UN as a whole.

"The activities of this organization concern every area of our lives. The level of work carried out by the UN, whether in science and education, peacekeeping or environmental protection, is unprecedented. If the UN did not exist, humanity would have to invent it," the Ukrainian diplomat noted.