The Veto in Practice: A Catalog of Vetoes 2014-Present
A catalog of Security Council vetoes cast since 2014, examining Russian, Chinese, and U.S. patterns on Syria, Ukraine, Israel-Palestine, and Venezuela.
The Article 27(3) Mechanism
The veto derives from Article 27(3) of the UN Charter, which requires that non-procedural decisions of the Security Council be made by an affirmative vote of nine members "including the concurring votes of the permanent members." The Yalta formula of 1945 fixed the five permanent seats (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States) and the practice — dating from the 1946 Spanish question — has treated abstention by a P5 member as non-blocking, despite the textual reference to "concurring votes." That construction was endorsed by the International Court of Justice in its 1971 Namibia Advisory Opinion (paragraph 22), which confirmed that consistent Council practice had crystallized into law.
From 1946 through 2024 the Council recorded approximately 320 vetoes. The Soviet Union/Russia leads the count; the United States is second, with most U.S. vetoes concerning Israel and the Middle East. France and the United Kingdom have not vetoed since 23 December 1989 (Panama). China used the veto sparingly until the Syria file opened in October 2011.
Tempo Since 2014
The 2014–present period has been the most veto-saturated decade since the early Cold War. Four files dominate:
Syria. Russia and China jointly or separately vetoed sixteen draft resolutions on Syria between 4 October 2011 and 2023. The 2014 marker was the 22 May 2014 draft (S/2014/348) referring the Syrian situation to the International Criminal Court — vetoed by Russia and China against thirteen affirmative votes. Cross-border humanitarian access mechanisms (Resolution 2165 of 2014 and its renewals) were progressively narrowed by Russian vetoes culminating in the 11 July 2023 veto that terminated the Bab al-Hawa authorization.
Ukraine. Russia vetoed S/2022/155 on 25 February 2022, the draft deploring its own invasion. Russia abstained on the convening of an Emergency Special Session under the "Uniting for Peace" procedure (Resolution 2623 of 27 February 2022) — a procedural vote where the veto does not apply. On 30 September 2022, Russia vetoed a draft condemning its purported annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson (S/2022/720).
Israel-Palestine. The United States vetoed draft resolutions on Gaza on 18 October 2023 (S/2023/772, Brazilian text), 8 December 2023 (S/2023/970, UAE text demanding ceasefire), 20 February 2024 (S/2024/173, Algerian text), and 18 April 2024 (S/2024/312, on Palestinian UN membership recommendation). Resolution 2728 of 25 March 2024 passed only because the United States abstained rather than vetoed, an inflection point in the Biden administration's posture.
Venezuela, Mali, DPRK. Russia and China vetoed S/2019/186 (Venezuela, 28 February 2019, U.S.-drafted), S/2022/431 (DPRK sanctions tightening, 26 May 2022 — the first DPRK-sanctions veto since the regime's inception in 2006), and S/2023/506 (Mali sanctions panel, 30 August 2023, Russia solo veto terminating the Panel of Experts).
Procedural Consequences
Resolution 76/262 of 26 April 2022 — the Liechtenstein-led "veto initiative" — now requires the General Assembly to convene within ten working days of any veto to hold a debate on the situation. The first such debate addressed the 25 February 2022 Russian veto; subsequent debates have covered every veto since, creating a documentary trail and political cost that did not previously attach to P5 obstruction.