Sir, – Since its foundation, the modus operandi of the United Nations have never been immune from criticism. However, the invasion of Ukraine has brought these deficiencies to a new level. The stated purpose of the UN Security Council is to maintain international peace and security and to determine acts of military aggression which threaten that peace. Ireland’s current membership of the council coincides with an unprovoked act of military aggression from one of the permanent members, the Russian Federation. The invasion has resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians, cities have been razed to the ground, 10 million people have fled their homes and war crimes have been committed. That permanent member now vetoes any resolution intended to stop the killing and the chaos, thus exposing, as never before, the inherent weakness of the UN system. There is no mechanism to remove a member of the security council because the veto continues to apply. It surely must be galling for Ireland and other council members to participate at meetings with the representative of a country which has no respect whatsoever for the basic principles of the UN charter. It also borders on indignity for the UN secretary general to virtually beg Mr Putin to withdraw his troops.
Despite the much-vaunted kudos in attaining membership of the council, it is difficult to see what impact Ireland has made. It seems to me that, as a neutral country, Ireland should take the initiative and draft a motion to suspend the Russian Federation and, when that inevitably fails, withdraw from the council in protest.
It is clear that for countries like Ireland, nothing can be achieved by remaining within the system. At the very least, such an action would highlight the failure of the UN to deal with such monumental issues and provoke a much-needed debate on reform which, this time, might achieve concrete results. – Yours, etc
MARTIN McDONALD,
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Terenure,
Dublin 12.