Dear representatives of the UN/UNDP Office in Brussels,
We are writing on behalf of the European Citizenship Prize-winning organization NGO Promote Ukraine based in Brussels. In light of International Children's Day, we are referring to you to kindly ask for your support in depriving the Russian Federation of the status of a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
As you know, thousands of Ukrainian children became victims of Russian aggression against Ukraine. As of now, after the start of the full-scale invasion, about 500 children were killed, and more than 1,000 Ukrainian kids were injured as a result of armed aggression. In the meantime, between 150,000-300,000 Ukrainian children were forcefully deported to the territory of the Russian Federation (estimates provided by Ukrainian officials; the Russian authorities claim to have deported 700,000 children). This crime became a justification for the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and the Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova. Nonetheless, the only way to put an end to the offences against Ukrainian children is to hold accountable all the crimes the Russian Federation has committed against Ukraine, among which the underlying one is the crime of aggression. Ukraine puts its all efforts to build a coalition which would support the creation of the special tribunal to prosecute the crime of aggression. In the meantime, the UN stays the key international body which could legitimize the powers of such a tribunal. However, the cannot ensure its support to the initiative while the aggressor state holds a seat among the permanent members of the UN Security Council and has the right to veto decisions of the UN General Assembly. Therefore, we call on the UN to invoke its charter and deprive the Russian Federation of its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to terminate its membership in the UN.
The three decades of Russia's participation in the UN have been remarked by wars and occupation of other sovereign countries and forcefully changing their internationally recognized borders. In particular, these are the occupation of Moldova`s Transnistria in 1992-1993, wars in Georgia with subsequent occupation of Abkhazia (1992-1993) and occupation of South Ossetia (2008), two wars in Chechnya (1994–1996 and 1999–2009), the invasion of Syria in 2015-2022, the occupation of Crimea and parts of Donbas in 2014, and a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Using veto power in the UN Security Council, Russia benefits from the ineffectiveness of this instrument to counter its own crimes. On August 9, 2008, Russia blocked the adoption of a resolution on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia. On March 15, 2014, Russia also blocked the adoption of a resolution on non-recognition of the referendum in the temporarily occupied Crimea. On April 10, 2018, due to Russia, the UN Security Council failed consideration of the resolution for the investigation of a possible chemical attack in Syria. On February 25, 2022, Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning its criminal actions on the territory of Ukraine. According to Article 27 of the U.N. charter, any member nation that is a party to a dispute must abstain from voting. As a party in the dispute and as an aggressor nation, it is unthinkable that Russia has a vote and veto power in decisions which concern its own crimes. Veto power is in the hands of terrorist state.
The UN Security Council as an institution has been paralyzed during all this time in matters of peace establishment and punishment of criminals. Its work is blocked by that offender, which destroys peace - Russian Federation.
31 years ago, by manipulating the UN Charter, Russia also usurped the seat of the Soviet Union in the UN Security Council - bypassing the only legitime procedure, determined by the UN Charter. The current UN Charter does not contain the word "Russian Federation". This phrase is also absent in Article 23 of the Charter, where all the Security Council members are mentioned. Moreover, the right of the Russian Federation to be a member of the UN is questionable, as it does not meet the basic criteria for membership in the Organization. Article 4, paragraph 1 of the Charter clearly states that membership in the UN is open to all peaceful states, which is not the case for Russia. That is why one seat in the UN Security Council is still occupied.
Ukraine calls on the UN to gather its Credentials Committee to decide on the non-recognition of the authority of the Russian delegation and to deprive it of the opportunity to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.
Ukraine calls on the UN to enforce the UN Charter in the context of the legitimacy of the Russian Federation's presence in the UN, to deprive the Russian Federation of its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to terminate its membership in the UN. On December 26, 2022, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine officially initiated Russia`s exclusion from the UN Security Council. Russia systematically violates the UN Charter, therefore, legally and morally, it has no right to be a privileged member of the group of countries responsible for peace.
On behalf of the Ukrainian nation, we would like to express our gratitude for the support the UN has already provided to Ukraine in these dark times. We believe that the UN must continue safeguarding global peace and the fundamental values of democracy.
NGO Promote Ukraine