President Macky Sall's candidacy for the office of UN Secretary-General places the restraint of the veto among its priorities. When civilians are being killed, the decision to act can hang on a single vote, and that vote can be a refusal.
A power of obstruction inherited from 1945. Five permanent members of the Security Council can, on their own, halt any substantive decision. That power was meant to preserve the accord between the great powers at the end of the war. It sometimes serves to shield inaction where inaction should be impossible, while a population waits for the protection the law recognises as its due.
Crimes the veto should not protect. Genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes engage a responsibility that states have solemnly recognised. A veto cast at the moment these crimes are being committed cancels that responsibility with a single gesture. Its price is counted in lives the Council could have spared.
Voluntary commitments already exist. The initiative led by France and Mexico invites the permanent members to suspend the veto of their own accord in the face of mass atrocities. The ACT Group's Code of Conduct brings together the states that pledge not to obstruct credible resolutions meant to prevent them. Since 2022, the General Assembly convenes automatically after every veto, and the member that casts it comes to explain it before the Assembly. The framework is written; it awaits the commitment of the many.
What the Secretariat can carry. The Secretary-General does not hold the veto and will not abolish it. He can name situations in time, raise the alarm before the irreparable is done, support the transparency the General Assembly has established, and remind the world that a veto which lets people die weakens not a single resolution, but the authority of the Organization as a whole.
Experience in multilateral negotiation. Twelve years as head of state and the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022 underpin these commitments. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames its proposals as obligations: peace, security and development conceived together; a renewed multilateralism; stronger governance of the Organization.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
The France–Mexico initiative, the ACT Group's Code of Conduct and the 2022 General Assembly resolution on the veto are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net