Editing United Nations Security Council (section)

==== Veto power ====
{{Main|United Nations Security Council veto power}}
{{See also|List of vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions}}

Under [[United Nations Security Council veto power#UN Charter|Article 27]] of the UN Charter, Security Council decisions on all substantive matters require the affirmative votes of nine (i.e. three-fifths) of the members. A negative vote or a "veto" by a permanent member prevents adoption of a proposal, even if it has received the required votes.{{sfn|Fasulo|2004|pp=40–41}} Abstention is not regarded as a veto in most cases, though all five permanent members must vote for adopting any amendment of the UN Charter.{{sfn|Fomerand|2009|p=287}} Procedural matters cannot be vetoed, so the veto right cannot be used to avoid discussion of an issue. The same holds for certain non-binding decisions that directly regard permanent members.{{sfn|Fasulo|2004|pp=40–41}} Most vetoes have been used for blocking a candidate for Secretary-General or the admission of a member state, not in critical international security situations.<ref name=Veto/>

In the negotiations leading up to the creation of the UN, the veto power was opposed by many small countries and was in fact forced on them by the veto nations—the United States, the United Kingdom, China, France, and the Soviet Union—by threatening that the UN would otherwise not be founded. [[Francis O. Wilcox]], an adviser to the US delegation to the 1945 conference, described the situation:

{{blockquote|At San Francisco, the issue was made crystal clear by the leaders of the Big Five: it was either the Charter with the veto or no Charter at all. Senator Connally [from the U.S. delegation] dramatically tore up a copy of the Charter during one of his speeches and reminded the small states that they would be guilty of that same act if they opposed the unanimity principle. "You may, if you wish," he said, "go home from this Conference and say that you have defeated the veto. But what will be your answer when you are asked: 'Where is the Charter?{{'"}}{{sfn|Wilcox|1945}}}}

{{As of|2012}}, 269 vetoes had been cast since the Security Council's inception.{{efn|This figure and the figures that follow exclude vetoes cast to block candidates for Secretary-General, as these occur in closed session; 43 such vetoes have occurred.<ref name=Veto/>}} In this period, China used the veto 9 times, France 18, the Soviet Union or Russia 128, the United Kingdom 32, and the United States 89. Roughly two-thirds of Soviet and Russian combined vetoes were in the first ten years of the Security Council's existence. Between 1996 and 2012,
the United States vetoed 13 resolutions, Russia 7, and China 5, whilst France and the United Kingdom did not use the veto.<ref name=Veto>{{cite web |url= http://www.globalpolicy.org/images/pdfs/Changing_Patterns_in_the_Use_of_the_Veto_as_of_August_2012.pdf |title=Changing Patterns in the Use of the Veto in The Security Council |publisher=Global Policy Forum |access-date=26 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160114211630/https://www.globalpolicy.org/images/pdfs/Changing_Patterns_in_the_Use_of_the_Veto_as_of_August_2012.pdf |archive-date=14 January 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

An early veto by Soviet Commissar [[Andrei Vishinsky]] blocked a resolution on the withdrawal of French forces from Syria and Lebanon which were under [[Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|French mandate]] in February 1946; this veto established the precedent that permanent members could use the veto on matters outside of immediate concerns of war and peace. The Soviet Union went on to veto matters including the admission of Austria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Laos, Libya, Nepal,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Times |first=A. M. Rosenthalspecial To the New York |date=1949-09-08 |title=RUSSIA'S 31ST VETO IN U. N. BARS NEPAL; Nine Nations in the Security Council Vote for Admitting Country to Membership |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1949/09/08/archives/russias-31st-veto-in-u-n-bars-nepal-nine-nations-in-the-security.html |access-date=2023-01-18 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=18 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118234356/https://www.nytimes.com/1949/09/08/archives/russias-31st-veto-in-u-n-bars-nepal-nine-nations-in-the-security.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Portugal, South Vietnam and Transjordan as UN member states, delaying their joining by several years. The United Kingdom and France used the veto to avoid Security Council condemnation of their actions in the 1956 Suez Crisis. The first veto by the United States came in 1970, blocking General Assembly action in [[Southern Rhodesia]]. From 1985 to 1990, the US vetoed 27 resolutions, primarily to block resolutions perceived as anti-Israel but also to protect its interests in Panama and Korea. The Soviet Union, the United States and China have all vetoed candidates for Secretary-General, with the US using the veto to block the re-election of [[Boutros Boutros-Ghali]] in 1996.{{sfn|Kennedy|2006|pp=52–54}}