Stubb calls for end to Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan wars, UN reform

President Alexander Stubb in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday expressed concern over the ongoing wars in Palestine, Ukraine and Sudan and emphasised the need for necessary measures to end the conflicts immediately.

He also underscored the importance to bring reforms in the United Nations and proposed to increase the number of permanent members of the Security Council to ten including five more members from Africa, Latin America and Asia.

“The number of on-going conflicts is the highest since the Cold War, and the number of states involved in them is on the rise. Especially in three hotspots: Palestine, Ukraine and Sudan. Human suffering has long since reached a point that should be unacceptable in this room,” said the President in his speech delivered late Wednesday night Finnish time.

He focused on three points -what unites rather than divides, how to end the current wars, especially those in Ukraine, Palestine and Sudan and how to reform the UN to reflect the press world.

“Only this year and last year, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed; more than ten thousand children in Gaza. Child abduction is being used as a weapon of war in Ukraine. Millions of people worldwide have been forced to leave their homes. Malnutrition and disease are on the increase,” he said.

Stubb said that neither Russia nor any other country has a historical right to anyone else’s region or people.

“The core of the UN Charter is respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. Finland condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Finland equally condemns the attempts to manipulate the global information space to destroy the principles that have sustained world peace for decades. I call on President Putin to end this war and end it now,” the President added.

A ceasefire in Palestine, a two-state solution and regional security arrangements would ensure stability as well as economic and societal development across the region, said the President.

“International law holds the key to a solution that would keep both Palestinians and Israelis safe. After the most recent tragedies, there is no other direction but forward and we must find a solution. There are no more excuses,” he added.

He also said that in Sudan, regardless of which of the groups who are fighting will finally win the war, the victims of that war will be the civilians and the transition to civilian rule built by them.

Focusing on the need for a far-reaching reform of the UN Security Council, he placed a three-point proposal including abolishing the veto power of the permanent members.

“First, all major continents need to be represented in the UN Security Council, at all times. It is unacceptable that there is no permanent representation from Latin America and Africa in the Security Council, and that China alone represents Asia. We therefore propose that the number of permanent members be increased by five – more concretely two from Asia, two from Africa and one from Latin America,” said Stubb.

He proposed that the total number of permanent members would thus be 10. That combined with 10 elected members would ensure that the Security Council would hold roughly 10 percent of the UN’s members at any given time.

He also said that Europe, should think hard about how best to divide its existing two seats.

“Second, no single state should have veto power. I fully understand that the veto was necessary in the aftermath of WWII, but in today’s world, it has too often incapacitated the Security Council and halted decision making here in New York,” he said.

In his third point, he said that if a permanent or elected member of the Security Council violates the UN Charter, its voting rights should be suspended. This decision should ultimately be taken in the General Assembly.

The President concluded his speech with remarks of late President Martti Ahtisaari in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008, “Peace is a question of will. All conflicts can be settled, and there are no excuses for allowing them to become eternal.”