438946 (Article 24(1) of the UN Charter, the Security Council and reform)
Demand UN Secretary General's Resignation and Reforms to Structure, Council Composition and Veto Power
1. If you had the opportunity, what actions would you demand of the United
Nations Secretary General and why?
A Presentation by Gideon Goldmann
2. ACTION 1: The Immediate Resignation of the UN Secretary General
If I truly had the opportunity, I shall convince the UN Secretary General (Mr. Ban Ki Moon to
firstly resign from his position as the Secretary General of the United Nations but with a proviso
as follows:
That he has the political will, determination, clout and skill set required to undertake and
implement the recommendations contained in the subsequent slides
That he can
3. Action 2: Restructuring of the UN
Restructure the UN into a better positioned organization primed to be relevant to current global and
world challenges because:
• The UN as it exists can do very little to intervene in genocides, terrorism, annexations etc
• Its current structure enables Security Council Members block necessary interventions
• Security Council members manipulate the system for their political and economic gains e.g. in 1991
the annexation of Kuwait by Iraq under Sadam Hussein was immediately resisted due to Kuwait’s Oil
wealth but in 1997, the UN watched as a million Rwandans were killed in one of the worst ever
genocides ever recorded.
4. Action 3: Composition of the Security Council
The Security Council must cease to be a kind of elite club
The Security Council is composed of only 5 Permanent Members with Nuclear capabilities (US, UK,
Russia and France).
Membership of the Security Council needs to be expanded to include Non-Nuclear capable
countries from the 195 or 196 countries (if we include Taiwan)
5. Action 4: The Unfair Use of the Veto Power
The veto should not be used as an arbitrary tool for global manipulation. The US has since 1982 exercised
its veto 32 times to block actions against Israel; more than the combined vetoes of the 4 other Security
Council members during the same period
Russia used its veto to block actions and sanctions against President Assad of Syria and also against
sanctions against its skirmishes in the Crimean region (2014)
