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UN Security Council Fails Ukraine, Gaza and the World
By Sir Ronald Sanders
When Russian drones stalk civilians along Ukraine’s Dnipro River and Gaza’s hospitals lie in ruins under relentless bombardment, the world cannot pretend that these are distant crises.
Yet the UN Security Council, which is entrusted to uphold global peace, is paralyzed by the self-interest of its veto powers, exposing its failure to fulfil both its mandate and its duty to safeguard humanity.
For small Caribbean nations struggling to build themselves in a world whose financial and trading architecture excludes their meaningful participation, such failures impose immediate costs.
Among these costs are: rising energy costs, food insecurity, and the alarming precedent that might makes right. It is time for every voice, large and small, to rise in defence of law, humanity, and the UN Charter’s promise of global security.
Campaign of Fear
Since July 2024, Russian forces have executed a coordinated drone assault across Kherson Province in Ukraine, killing nearly 150 civilians and injuring countless more.
The UN’s Independent Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine found that these strikes targeted people going about daily life — fetching water, riding mopeds, and even boarding ambulances — using live video feeds to pick off victims with surgical precision.
One witness described rescuers, who were tending to the wounded, being blown apart by a second strike. The Commission concluded that these were deliberate war crimes and crimes against humanity, designed to drive entire communities from their homes.
Yet when some members of the UN Security Council moved to condemn these atrocities, Russia vetoed the resolution, transforming the veto from a safeguard of human life into a license for impunity.
Meanwhile, estimates put the number of Ukrainian and Russian deaths – military and civilian – at much more than 300,000 since the conflict started in 2022.
Gaza’s Descent into Collective Punishment
Since the horrific attack on Israel by Hamas on 7 October 2023, Gaza has endured an unrelenting counteroffensive that has reduced whole neighbourhoods to rubble by the Israeli military.
In the most recent atrocity, the UN reports that nearly 4,000 Palestinians—mostly civilians—have died under a blockade that cuts off food, water, and medicine. This adds to the more than 54,000 that had reportedly been killed before this latest cruelty.
The UN Special Coordinator stressed that families are being “denied the very basics” and warned of looming famine.
Hospitals and schools, even those sheltering the displaced, have not been spared. Calls for a ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access have repeatedly faltered on threatened or actual vetoes – each one a vote for further suffering.
The Israeli government said its action is to stop Hamas from “stealing aid”, which Hamas denies. Either way, civilians continue to suffer and perish.
When the Veto Shields Aggressors
The UN Charter gave its five permanent Council members “primary responsibility” for keeping the peace, not for shielding those who flout humanitarian law.
Each self-interest veto of this kind is a blow to the rule of law, eroding the norm that civilian lives must be protected from direct attack.
Small States, Big Stakes
Caribbean nations live daily with the consequences of the Security Council’s failure to act. Rising energy costs sparked by conflict erode their budgets, threaten their food security, and stoke social unrest.
Worse still, if veto-wielders can ignore mass atrocity, what protections remain for a small state that cannot count on the UN to safeguard its welfare? National sovereignty, territorial integrity, and individual human rights, which were hard-won through centuries of struggle, demand that small, developing states speak out, or risk standing by while these rights are trampled.
Commending the European Union
In the current climate of diplomatic paralysis, the European Union (EU) has recently shown rare courage in relation to the horrifying events in Gaza. EU High Representative, Kaja Kallas, declared that “Israeli strikes in Gaza go beyond what is necessary to fight Hamas” and rejected any aid distribution model that bypasses the UN, warning that “humanitarian aid cannot be weaponised”.
EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, described recent attacks on civilian infrastructure as “abhorrent” and “disproportionate,” and Germany’s new chancellor publicly questioned Israel’s objectives. By suspending trade talks with Israel and reviewing its association agreement, the EU is sending a clear message: strategic partnerships must not eclipse human life.
Raising Voices in Unity
Like the EU, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states need not wait for the UN Security Council to perform its duty. Their parliaments can pass motions demanding accountability; their foreign ministries can coordinate regional statements; their civil societies can keep Ukraine and Gaza in the public eye. When CARICOM states speak with one voice – rooted in their shared history of fighting for self-determination – they amplify the UN Charter’s promise that “representative democracy is indispensable,” and remind the great powers of their pledge to protect it.
A Collective Imperative
The UN Security Council veto was never meant to be a refuge for perpetrators. If left unchallenged, aggression becomes the new normal, spreading like a cancer until every nation feels its ruin. Now is the moment for Latin American and Caribbean states – and all who value stability – to demand that the Security Council honour its founding covenant. For if the rule of law dies in Ukraine and Gaza, it will be extinguished everywhere.
The nations of Latin America and the Caribbean – each forged in the foundry of oppression and steeled by ancestral struggles for liberty – must unmask every veto that shields atrocity, champion resolutions that protect civilians, and restore the Charter’s promise of peace and security.
(The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the US and the OAS. He is also the Dean of the Ambassadors of the Western Hemisphere Group accredited to the U.S. The views expressed are entirely his own. Responses and previous commentaries: www.sirronaldsanders.com)
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Once again our country flag has been flying on a ship enroute to Israel with a supply of weapon to kill children women and men destroying schools hospitals This man was in charge under the last labour administration with ship registered to carry the Antigua flag we remember during the period of Apathied South Africa
In 1960, The UN Security Council actually told Israel that it would endanger international peace and security if it kept capturing Nazi war criminals. 🙄
Sudan. Twenty-five million starving. Half a million children already dead. A famine orchestrated by a Muslim Brotherhood-led militia.
Haiti. Five-point-four million are starving. Gangs rule, and even humanitarian trucks need bodyguards. Like Hamas, they loot the aid.
Yemen. Seventeen million face daily hunger whilst the Houthi prioritise firing rockets at Israel over feeding its own people.
Did you forget to mention the Islamic Republic of Iran? No condemnation for its role in this war..or is it just an inconvenient detail that Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Islamic Jihad and its militias in Iraq and Syria are all the Ayatollah’s tools for terrorising the Middle East? Rather quiet regarding Qatar too.
But you reserve your selective outrage for the world’s only Jewish state that is fighting an existential war.
Ambassador, I normally enjoy your writing and I must also state that this one portrays diplomacy at the highest level.
In particular, I noted that the Russian Ukraine war, you were explicit in stating that Russia has been committing war crimes. However, in the Israel – Palestine war, you stopped short of calling their actions a war crime. You did mention some of the Israeli actions that may amount to war crime but Israeli has been guilty of everything that you stated about Russia and more. You forgot to mention that Israel has deliberately attacked Ambulances, hospitals, schools, journalist and refugee sites.
Also, while you were bold to term the Russian war against Ukraine, you implied that the Israel war is against Hamas and localized to Gaza rather than against Palestine and all the Palestinians.
You mentioned that Caricom needs to speak with one voice but what tone should be used? Should it be a voice of diplomacy or a factual voice?
Russian president was recently labelled as having gone crazy. Was he crazy to start the war on Ukraine? Was he the one that really caused the war to start or was he forced to react to the aggression of the West in trying to extend NATO on the back door?
You mentioned the cost of living going up because of the war. Did Putin carry up the price of oil or did the West decide not to buy or fix price on Russian oil which eventually caused prices to go up?
Israel – Palestine war, did it really start on Oct 7? Israel has been terrorizing/attacking the Palestinians for decades and Hamas reacted on Oct 7. The choice of words is so important – Israel (or any bigger nation) is always reacting while Hamas (or any lesser nation) is always attacking.
Does the UN Security Council and the ICJ have any real power when they are controlled? While the Security Council have been debating, what can they really do when, as you stated, one country has a veto power. Even when a matter goes before the general assembly, like recognizing the state of Palestine, it cannot mandate all countries to do so. Worse, how can the ICJ function when if cannot issue an arrest warrant for certain persons without its members get sanctioned?
Again, what voice should we speak with?
JBF 🚨
Perhaps you hadn’t noticed, but Russia invaded another country, just like Hamas invaded Israel. Russia has been rather busy in Africa too..with its Wagner mercenaries taking control of gold mines. But hey, who am I to rain on your Imperialist Russia show?
On the subject of Gaza, are you referring to Al Ahli hospital which Islamic Jihad bombed themselves when a rocket aimed at Israel misfired, which they blamed on Israel? Or are you referring to the European Hospital? The one where Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar was killed in a tunnel beneath. Media have conveniently dropped the story. And the hospital itself was never hit.
I agree, this war started way before October 7th. Where shall we start🤔?:
1570 attacks on Safed?
1660 destruction of Tiberius?
1929 the massacre of Jews in Hebron?
You mentioned Israel always reacting to Hamas. I mean, how dare they not allow their people to be butchered, burned, raped and kidnapped by a mob of Jew haters shouting ‘allahu akbar’? A dead Jew is acceptable..but we can’t have one that fights back, can we now?
Meanwhile, the ICC ( you said ICJ) led by Karim Khan ran into a bit of trouble. Chief Prosecutor Khan, has just stepped aside because of allegations of sexual assault. Looks like it might just run in the family too; his brother ( an MP)was jailed for sexually abusing boys. There are some great characters trying to demonise Israel👿 Why aren’t you calling for arrest warrants for the Mullahs or Ayatollahs? I’ll assume you have no idea of the complexities in this region 🙄
Anyway, I think the voice you are looking for to ‘speak out’ might do the Palestinians a disservice. Cheerleading for Hamas will only strengthen a death cult that subjugates its own people. It routinely murders Palestinians that dare to challenge their tyranny. A perverted idea of ‘freedom fighters’ serves to prolong the blood shed.
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