How to Expel Russia From the UN Security Council – Kyiv Post

According to some legal experts, if the UN is to be a viable peace organization, it must restart the UN Security Council – without Russia.

For decades, the UN has been criticized as an overly bureaucratic giant that is rapidly losing its ability to promote or ensure international peace. The turning point came perhaps in 1995 when UN peacekeepers patrolling Srebrenica, a Bosnian town, stood by and watched as more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men were rounded up and then massacred by Bosnian Serb troops.

Echoes of Srebrenica can now be heard across Ukraine wherever Russian troops are. Unfortunately, the UN seems even more powerless today than it did in 1995. One of the main reasons why the organization designed to promote world peace is so ineffective stems from the fact that each of the five permanent members of the Security Council – the United States , the United Kingdom , France, China and Russia – can veto any resolution. As such, each of the members can choose to cripple a particular course of action.

Indeed, for decades, the US has been repeatedly criticized for opposing any resolution that runs counter to its own interests or those of its allies, particularly Israel.

Today, Russia continues its aggression against Ukraine – any suggestion by UN peacekeepers or observers monitoring elections inspires contempt because Russia would veto any resolution that might risk eroding its advantage on the ground.

Both critics of the UN and advocates of its raison d’être are painfully aware of the organization’s paralysis.

One suggestion was to simply throw Russia out of the Security Council. This is of course easier said than done. Nevertheless, Thomas D. Grant, a fellow at the Lauterpacht Center for International Law at the University of Cambridge, has presented a blueprint for how Russia can be expelled from the UN Security Council – legally and in accordance with the UN Charter and its amendments. Grant’s proposals were published on September 26 by the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).

Grant points to major upheavals in the composition of the Security Council, such as the accession of communist China in 1971 (and the consequent departure of Taiwan) and the outlawing of South Africa for its apartheid policies. He also lays out a procedural path that would allow Ukraine to replace Russia as the heir to the USSR.

While the odds of actually kicking the Russians out of the Security Council remain slim, even attempting to do so could lead to reform that could revitalize the organization that many analysts believe is ossified.

See the CEPA article for details on Grant’s proposal