The Expulsion of a Permanent Member of the UNSC from the UN

Abstract

The Russian aggression on Ukraine has triggered a complex question: could Russia, as one of five permanent members of the UNSC, be expelled from the UN regardless of Article 6 of the UN Charter? This Article provides that a UN member state which has persistently violated the principles from the Charter may be expelled from the UN by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the UNSC. Since this recommendation of the UNSC requires unanimity of all its permanent members, it seems that the international community has been faced with a seemingly unsolvable situation. Nevertheless, there are maneuvers based on the rules of customary international law embodied in the Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties, that could be exercised. Those maneuvers would not be something unseen in the history of UN law; however extreme and severe consequences would arise this time.