Venezuela Proposes Suspending Right to Veto in U.N.

Venezuela’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Jorge Valero, argued that the organisation needs to be restructured and that the Security Council has too much power, during his intervention to the 65th session of the General Assembly yesterday in New York.

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Merida, September 30th, 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Jorge Valero, argued that the organisation needs to be restructured and that the Security Council has too much power, during his intervention to the 65th session of the General Assembly yesterday in New York.

His speech followed five days of debate in the UN to open the new period of sessions of the General Assembly.

Valero argued that the structure and agenda of the UN reflect “the current and unjust power relations that exist at the global level”.

As an example, he used the cases of Cuba and Palestine, countries that have been supported by most members of the General Assembly but the UN, he said, has done little to stop the injustices against them.

“What has this organisation done so that the U.S. respects the will of the General Assembly? What has the Security Council done so that the occupying powers respect the principles of international law?” he asked.

“In the United Nations a strategy is being enacted to weaken the General Assembly and exclude it from the important global decisions, at the same time as the Security Council increases its power and influence,” Valero said.

He argued that the Security Council was taking on themes that weren’t within its authority as described by the UN Charter, and as one of his proposals for the restructuring of the UN, suggested that peace and international security, currently addressed by the Security Council, are issues that should be the responsibility of the UN.

Valero also proposed that the veto power held by the five permanent members of the Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) be suspended in order to make the UN more democratic, saying that as a “remnant of the Second World War, it is incompatible with the principle of sovereign and equal states”.

He also said the UN Secretary General should be democratically elected by 75% of the member countries, “member states should be participating in the… designation”.

Valero also argued for more cooperation among developing countries, which “should reinforce South-South cooperation and create alternative and sovereign mechanisms to prevent the monopoly of credit maintained by the Bretton Woods financial institutions”. Allied nations during World War II signed the Bretton Woods agreements, which established rules and institutions for a new global monetary order, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

He cited the experiences promoted by Venezuela in Latin America, such as the Bank of the South, Petrocaribe, and the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our Americas (ALBA). He also called for the re-launching of the G-77 and the China and the Non-Aligned Countries Movement so that developing countries could defend their interests.