Security Council

Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the UN, about to speak on why the United States was resigning from the UN Human Rights Council, June 19, 2018. Her achievements as ambassador have not strayed far from what she told Congress she would set out to do in the job, with exceptions. US STATE DEPARTMENT
The Trump administration has been in office 559 days and counting. Nikki Haley, a former Republican governor of South Carolina and now the American ambassador to the United Nations, has been in office since Jan. 25, 2017.

Karen Pierce, the British ambassador to the United Nations, in 2013. Pierce, a career foreign service officer, is one of only three female ambassadors in the 15-member UN Security Council this year, the other two being from Poland and the United States. CREATIVE COMMONS

Justine Masika Bihamba, who runs a women’s rights group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, told the UN Security Council on July 26, 2018, that the UN peacekeeping mission there can no longer afford to pay for human-rights experts on the ground, a result of budget cuts recently approved by the UN General Assembly. JOE PENNEY

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, second from left, arriving to brief the press during his visit at UN headquarters in New York. Nikki Haley, the American ambassador to the UN, is with him, July 20, 2018. They emphasized to the UN Security Council the need to enforce its sanctions on North Korea. MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO

Protesting in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 2016, after President Joseph Kabila refused to step down, violating the constitution. He remains president but has agreed to hold an election on Dec. 23, 2018. CREATIVE COMMONS

The conditions of membership in the U.N. are specified in the U.N. Charter. Specifically, “Articles 5 and 6 of the Charter of the United Nations deal respectively with suspension of rights and privileges of membership, and with expulsion from the United Nations.” But the operative part is Article 6, which reads:

The UN: Instrumental or Normative?
 
[Prefatory Note: A greatly modified version of this post was published in Middle East Eye on March 12, 2018, under the title, “The UN: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.”]
 
 A Renewed Crisis of Confidence
 

Although passed unanimously, the UNSC Resolution was not without its usual diatribes between Russia and the US.
The resolution, tabled by Sweden and Kuwait, passed 15-0 after three days of wrangling over wording [Xinhua]
After three days of delays over wording of the document, the United Nations Security Council on Saturday unanimously passed Resolution 2401 which called for all parties in the Syrian conflict to an immediate ceasefire which would last for at 30 consecutive days.

Russia has vetoed several draft resolutions on Syria which it says are unfair and biased, often following “fabricated” evidence [Xinhua]The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote on a new resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria, following reports of heavy fighting and mass casualties near the capital Damascus.
Russia had called for the Security Council to meet to discuss the resolution, while Kuwait and Sweden called for a vote.

Russia has vetoes 11 draft resolutions on Syria which it says are unfair and biased, often following “fabricated” evidence [Xinhua]
Russia has for the second time this week vetoed a draft resolution in the Security Council aimed at renewing the mandate of the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), which investigates chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
The vetoed drafted presented by Japan to the Security Council on Saturday was designed to give JIM a temporary extension to continue its work.