Statement by the Delegation of Ukraine before the General Assembly on the agenda item 30 “Report of the Security Council”

(12 November 2015)

Mr. President,

Thank you for convening this meeting.

First of all we would like to express our appreciation to Ambassador Gerard von Bohemen and his team for preparing the introduction part of the Security Council Report A/70/2 and Ambassador Mathew Rycroft for providing an excellent presentation.

As a newly elected non-permanent member of the Security Council for the period of 2016-2017 Ukraine takes particular interest in the Report. We welcome the attempt at making this document more concise. We believe that shortening the introductory part is a step in the right direction towards preparation of a document that the General Assembly has long been calling for – a more analytical and substantive paper and not a mere recollection of the Council’s proceedings over the reporting period.

It is our strong belief that the UN membership must be informed of not just what happened and when, but also why and how a respective action was taken or not taken.

This aspect is still missing in the traditional Security Council annual reports. Having answers to the above questions would aid not only the Member States’ understanding of the Council’s work, but can also prove beneficial for the Security Council by encouraging it to find workable solutions in the relevant situations.

The analysis of the decision-making processes in cases when the Council failed to act or the Council’s actions did not bring expected results in the form of a peaceful resolution of a given conflict could help identify the areas for improvements in the Council’s methods of work. Consequently it would facilitate search for more effective ways of addressing issues that are brought before the Council and dealing with them in a decisive and result-oriented manner as opposed to a dangerous trend of avoiding an issue up to a point of ignoring it.

In other words, the Annual Report, in our opinion, should provide a very clear answer to the UN membership as to how successful the Security Council has been in carrying out its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.

Mr. President,

A candid assessment is that behind many pages of fine print lurks the answer that the Security Council is yet to rise to the challenges of today. As the external aggression against Ukraine clearly demonstrates, the world, in which the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter are being violated, the international law is subject to frivolous and selective interpretations and the perpetrators avoid accountability, needs a strong Security Council capable of resolute actions.

We need the Council capable of both protecting the Charter and following it. Apparently the second part of paragraph 3 of Article 27 of the Charter, obliging a party to a dispute to abstain from voting, proved to be too high a mountain to climb both for a party in question – as was the case with the two Russian vetoes on draft resolutions on Ukraine - and the Council itself, which shied away from proper consideration of the application of the mentioned provision.

In this regard we welcome and fully support the Code of Conduct regarding Security Council action against genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes put forward by the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency Group and the French-Mexican initiative on limiting the use of veto. These are very timely initiatives that may facilitate the transformation of the Council into a body, in which the veto right is used responsibly in the interests of the world and not abused to promote and protect narrow interests of just one party.

Ukraine recognizes that the above mentioned shortcomings are not the result of a lack of trying on part of the overwhelming majority of Council members, including permanent ones, but rather the outcome of all too clear institutional deficiencies in the Council’s composition and established working methods.

In this regard we encourage the Council to explore new ways and approaches to improve its overall performance. As an incoming member Ukraine stands ready to contribute to pertinent discussions on the subject both within the Council and with the wider UN membership.

 

Thank you.