The Hindu : National : Panel on UN. reforms has called veto `anachronistic'

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Sunday, Dec 05, 2004

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Panel on UN. reforms has called veto `anachronistic'

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 4. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin's assertion on Friday that that there should be no erosion of the veto power of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council must also be seen in the context of the High-Level Panel report on U.N. reforms. The report had said that "as a whole" the veto had an anachronistic character in an increasingly democratic age.

Urging that the veto be limited for use where "vital national matters" were genuinely at stake, the panel, which came out strongly against expanding this power, said: "We see no practical way of changing the existing members' veto powers ... we also ask the permanent members, in their individual capacities, to pledge themselves to refrain from the use of the veto in cases of genocide and large-scale human rights' abuses."

In a related development, the External Affairs Ministry spokesman said that India would study the recommendations made by the High-Level Panel. "The necessity and the urgency of U.N. reforms, including that of the U.N. Security Council, is widely accepted. The Panel has supported the idea of the UNSC expansion but has stopped short of a definitive recommendation on new permanent members. It is now for the member-states of the U.N. to take this idea forward in the coming year." On Thursday, the Press Trust of India quoted the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, as saying in the Rajya Sabha on India's entry into the Security Council: "Without a veto, I do not think it will be acceptable to the country."

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