Little Liechtenstein takes on the world's most powerful countries at the UN

The tiny European principality of Liechtenstein, with a population of less than 40,000, has taken on the world's most powerful countries at the United Nations and scored a rare victory.

On Tuesday, the UN General Assembly adopted a Liechtenstein resolution requiring the five permanent members of the Security Council -- Russia, China, USA, France and Britain -- to justify their use of the veto.

"We are concerned about the growing inability of the Security Council to do the work that we mandated it to do under the UN charter and we have seen this trend in the last few years," Christian Wenaweser, Liechtenstein's ambassador to the UN, told Euronews.

"And if you look at our national statements we have very consistently been advocating for a stronger role for the General Assembly," he added

The text of Liechtenstein's resolution was co-authored by P5 members Britain, France and the UK, and 80 other countries, but not by Russia or China.

Since it had such widespread appeal among UN members, no voting was requested in the end, with the measure adopted by consensus.

"We are very satisfied with the level of support we got from the permanent members, and its value will be in its application," Ambassador Wenaweser said, adding that Liechtenstein's government expects their resolution to make a "clear, concrete and practical difference" to the UN's most powerful countries if they exercise their veto powers in future.

The reforms were first proposed more than two years ago, and say that the General Assembly should be convened "within ten working days of the opposition of one or more permanent members of the Security Council, to hold a debate on the situation in which the veto has been cast".

However the resolution is non-binding and if any of