Veto on the veto

The Supreme Commissar of the UN Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein proposed limiting the permanent members of the Council of Security of the organization in the use of veto law, "when there are serious suspicions that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide can be committed." The statement of the Supreme Commissioner is quoted on the website of his management.

The UN Security Council must immediately develop the criteria for restricting the right of veto, Zeid emphasized.

The official associated such an initiative with the situation in Syria. According to Zeid, on September 21, when the Syrian government and its allies began the brutal bombing of the eastern districts of Aleppo , held by the rebels, hundreds of civilians, including at least 100 children, died in the city.

The deprivation of permanent members of the Council of Security of the Veto, the Supreme Commissioner noted, will allow this structure to appeal to the International Criminal Court in the Hague. “ The attack on the humanitarian convoy on September 19 , recent blows to three bases of the White Helmys volunteer rescue group, as well as raids for at least three large hospitals in the east of Aleppo ... - All this seems to indicate that the following operations are carried out with a complete neglect of most basic norms of international humanitarian law,” said Zeid.

Among the factors causing special concern, the official called the use of inaccessible weapons in densely populated areas, including incendiary bombs . He emphasized that the III protocol of the Convention on certain ordinary weapons strictly prohibits the use of incendiary weapons in areas with the civilian population, and noticed that Russia also signed this protocol. This is the only direct mention of Russia in Zeida's statement.

“Since the use of such inaccurate weapons most likely does not allow military successes, it should be concluded that its main purpose is to terrorize the inhabitants of East Aleppo,” the Supreme Commissioner noted.

“Let's not forget that the destruction of cities such as Warsaw, Stalingrad and Dresden, and the horrors that their peaceful population was subjected to a large extent caused the UN formation,” Zeid also remarked. “We have no right to leave Aleppo in trouble. We have no right to continue to leave thousands of children locked in this city in anticipation of massacre.”

According to RIA Novosti with reference to Dmitry Peskov, spokeswoman Vladimir Putin, in the Kremlin, the Supreme Commissioner "reacted negatively."

In a similar vein, Interfax reports , the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, also expressed. "This, of course, goes beyond the theoretical, philosophical framework of the UN Secretariat - to give such instructions to the countries - members of the Security Council, and indeed countries to members of the organization," the official said. "This is not a thing, it is not the case of the secretariat."

Earlier, Russia has repeatedly vested the UN Security Council resolutions about the situation in Syria. In 2015, Great Britain and France proposed to the permanent members of the Security Council to voluntarily abandon the veto's right in the discussion of mass crimes. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov categorically rejected this idea .