Vetoing Humanity (Oxfam, 2024) explores how the UN Security Council’s structure and the dominance of its five permanent members (P5) have undermined global peace and worsened humanitarian crises. The report’s objective is to show how veto and penholding powers, combined with systemic inequality, obstruct conflict resolution and fuel humanitarian suffering. It reviews 23 protracted crises—including Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, and the Democratic Republic of Congo —where conflict has killed over 1.1 million people, displaced millions more, and driven 135 million into severe hunger. Humanitarian needs have quadrupled in the last decade, yet funding gaps remain vast, with over 100 million people left without lifesaving assistance in 2023.
Ultimately, it concludes that the UNSC system is no longer fit for purpose and calls for bold reforms: renouncing veto power, expanding membership to reflect people rather than military might, mandating humanitarian funding, halting arms transfers that fuel violence, and ensuring women’s leadership in peacebuilding.