United Nations reform discussions focus on Security Council veto power

The United Nations is facing a crisis of trust and effectiveness, with its ability to produce meaningful results for all members being a central theme of its current agenda. The current international system, established after World War II, is criticized for being a structure that privileges great powers, particularly through the mechanisms of the Security Council.

Discussions regarding reform have intensified due to the perceived inability of international institutions to prevent or resolve major conflicts, such as those in Gaza and Syria. A significant focus of these reform proposals is the limitation of the veto power within the Security Council. Specifically, there are calls to abolish the use of the veto in instances involving mass atrocities or genocide to prevent single-member decisions from obstructing humanitarian intervention.

These reform efforts build upon the “World is bigger than five” thesis, originally proposed by President Erdoğan in 2014, which advocates for a more inclusive and representative restructuring of the UN, including the General Assembly and the Security Council, to better reflect modern global realities.