On 28 October, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, our Programme on International Peace and Security (IPS) co-hosted a panel discussion on whether any legal limits exist to the use of veto powers by Permanent Members of the UN Security Council. The panel discussion, chaired by IPS Executive Director Federica D’Alessandra, looked at whether the UNSC is unbound in its use of veto powers, or whether any limits (jus cogens, the purposes and principles of the UN outlined in Art. 1(1) UN Charter, or individual States duties arising from customary international and treaty law) apply in situations of atrocity crimes. The panel, which featured interventions by Professors Jennifer Trahan (NYU), Jennifer Welsh (McGill), and Marc Weller(Cambridge University) builds on a previous panel discussion held over the summer, with Senior Visiting Fellow Amb. Stephen Rapp and Senator/General Romeo Dellaire, looking at the political dynamics underpinning the use of veto in situations of mass atrocities, as well as its consequences for international peace and security. If you missed the panel, you can watch it here.
Picture Credit: UN Photo. License available here.
