By: Thomas D. Grant
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine presents an unprecedented challenge to the United Nations. In particular, Russia, by wielding the veto of one of the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council under UN Charter Article 23, paragraph 1, presents an anomaly: the organ of the UN intended to promote international peace and security finds itself stymied by an aggressor. UN Charter Article 6 provides for the expulsion of a Member that persistently violates the principles of the Charter, but the procedural requirements for activating Article 6 are onerous and almost certainly impossible to meet. Article 6 expulsion is not the end of the matter, however. On a number of occasions, credentials procedure has been used in the UN to curtail the participation of a State that has been involved in violations of Charter principles. The General Assembly effectively suspended Hungary in 1956 and South Africa in 1974 from participating in that principal UN organ, achieving this effect through the organ’s credentials procedure. The Security Council has a credentials procedure as well. Considering the substantive grounds for curtailing Russia’s participation in the Security Council, and considering the procedural precedent for using credentials procedure in this way, States should entertain action to address Russia’s presence and thus defend the Organization from an aggressor State filling one of the Organization’s most important roles.
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