Article 27
Article specifies the UNSC's voting procedures. Nine of fifteen members, including all five permanent members, must concur in order for the UNSC to act on a non-procedural measure.
The requirement of the P-5's unanimous assent establishes the famous "great power veto," which deadlocked the UNSC throughout most of the Cold War and has prevented the UNSC from authorizing military action on many occasions, including the Iraq War. It was also used by the U.S. to block re-appointment of UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. There has been much debate on the veto. Some have interpreted its purpose as being primarily to prevent military action being taken against any member of the P-5; these observers therefore favor limiting the veto to that purpose and not using it for questions such as nomination of a UN Secretary-General.
Procedural measures are not subject to veto, which allows the Security Council to discuss topics over the objection of a veto holding member.
Read more about this topic: Chapter V Of The United Nations Charter
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“Be assured that it gives much more pain to the mind to be in debt, than to do without any article whatever which we may seem to want.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)