Petition

To: Ban Ki Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations General Assembly

From: Students Against UN Veto (www.saunv.org)

RE: End the Veto Right of UN Security Council Permanent Members

Over the past 15 years since the September 11, 2011 attacks on the US, there have been a series

of troubling actions taken by several of the UN Security Council Permanent Members. For

example, the US invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the annexation of Crimea

by Russia. These actions demonstrate that the Security Council lacks accountability, and that the

veto power of the Permanent Members is being abused in order to advance narrow political

agendas at the expense of human rights.

We, the undersigned, call directly on the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon,

to immediately lead an effort to bring meaningful institutional reform to the Security Council,

beginning with an abolition of the veto.

There is abundant evidence that the veto right has been abused. Recent cases include:

“(1973) condemning Israel for attacking Lebanese civilians

(1978) for an end to all military and nuclear collaboration with apartheid South

(1982) declaring that education, work, health care, proper nourishment, national

development are human rights

(1989) condemning illegal USA embargo of Nicaragua

(1990) to send three UN Security Council observers to the occupied Palestinian

(1999) calling on the USA to end its trade embargo on Cuba

(2001) to set up the International Criminal Court

(2006) for a convention against female discrimination”

Most recently, the UN Security Council veto power has been used to prevent effective

intervention in the Syrian civil war by international relief agencies and peacekeeping forces. The

failure to intervene in this case has prolonged the war and extended the suffering of millions of