Lula advocates the end of UN veto power: ‘Conflicts are born from lack of global governance’

Brasil de Fato

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party) defended the end of the veto power in the United Nations Security Council during a press conference in New York City on Wednesday (25). The statement was made after he attended the UN General Assembly throughout the week. 

Currently, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – China, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Russia – are the ones who can block any resolution presented, regardless of the number of favorable votes it receives.

“Brazil has insisted and tried to articulate with other presidents the need to renew the United Nations so that it can resolve conflicts that are currently adrift because there is no global governance,” said Lula.

“We are advocating a new geopolitical structure so that all continents are represented at the UN, including on the Security Council, doing away with the veto power,” he said.

Citing the conviction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the International Criminal Court (ICC), President Lula classified the attacks against the Palestinian people as “genocide.” “What we see in Israel, in the Gaza Strip and now in Lebanon is unprecedented,” he said. 

“Here at the UN, there have been several attempts at peace [deals] and ceasefires and he [Netanyahu] doesn’t comply with them. He simply doesn’t comply [with these attempts]. That’s why we’re fighting to strengthen the UN as an instrument strong enough to take decisions and make things happen,” said Lula. 

“The UN had a lot of power when it was created, [and] to create the State of Israel. And now it has no power to create the state of Palestine,” said the Brazilian president.

Lula said that, along with the President of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, he had invited presidents to discuss “the revitalization of democracy” in the world. “This right-wing extremism that we’re facing, with strong support from the fake news industry, which is monetized […] I called on the democrats to discuss where did democracy go wrong?”, said Lula. “It’s a very serious discussion because I consider democracy to be the most extraordinary system of government ever invented,” he said.

The press conference was held shortly before Lula flew back to Brasilia, Brazil’s capital city, together with the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (Progressive Party) and the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (Social Democratic Party).