On Friday, March 21, 2025, the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination is organizing a third simulation on the ‘Veto Initiative’ from 9:30am-1:30pm. This follows the two simulations on the matter that we hosted in Spring 2023 and 2024. We tested scenarios for the application of the ‘Veto Initiative’ and its implications for the possibility of action in the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council, as well as the relationship between the two bodies. Diplomats from the Permanent Mission of Liechtenstein to the United Nations, which proposed the ‘Veto Initiative,’ attended and provided feedback. A report with insights from the simulations was published in May 2024. For the third simulation, we will again be joined by diplomats with extensive knowledge of the ‘Veto Initiative.’

The case study will be the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and nuclear proliferation. 

Participants should be available for a preparatory meeting on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, from 7-8pm. 

The so-called ‘Veto Initiative’ (Resolution A/RES/76/262) establishes a standing mandate for a UN General Assembly meeting any time one or more of the five Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – cast a veto. At this meeting, the UN General Assembly debates the situation as to which the veto was cast, and the member or members who cast the veto are invited to speak first on the matter. Other Member States may speak as well, and the outcome is open.

After decades of debate about Security Council reform and deadlock in that same process, the Veto Initiative Resolution may bring greater accountability to Security Council deliberations and also enhance the role of the General Assembly in matters of peace and security. 

The simulation is co-sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Liechtenstein to the United Nations and the International Relations Council. 

Please apply here.