Veto
A right of veto means that somebody can stop decisions or legislation.
For example, the President of the United States has veto power over the USA's Congress. This can stop legislation from being passed. If the President vetoes a bill passed by the Congress, it only becomes a law if Congress passes it again, this time with at least twice as many members of each of the two houses voting for it than voting against it.
Similarly, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (the United States of America, the United Kingdom, China, Russia and France) each has veto power. Using this, they can stop the Security Council's decisions from being passed and becoming resolutions unless they all agree to them. These vetoes cannot be overturned by any more voting on that resolution; if there is a need to address the same issue again in the future, a new and separate resolution must be written, passed, and not vetoed.
The veto was invented in ancient times for the Roman tribunes so they could protect the people from bad laws made by the Roman Senate.
Veto Media
US President Ronald Reagan signing a veto of a bill.
Tiberius Gracchus, Roman tribune
US President Bill Clinton signing cancellation letters related to his line-Item vetoes for the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.
United Nations Security Council meeting room.
Map of Africa in SVG format. Just the countries and territories of Africa, not the oceans or other continents.
Státy Severní a jižní Ameriky v ne skutečném umístění, ilustrativní mapka
Map of Asia's regions and countries for use on Wikivoyage, English version
Map of Europe, with ISO 3166-1 pt · en country and territory codes. SVG format. Map legend in Portuguese and English, with name of sovereign state given in parenthesis, where applicable: * AD: Andorra pt · en ·
Map of Oceania, with ISO 3166-1 pt · en country and territory code. SVG format. Map legend in Portuguese and English, with name of sovereign state given in parenthesis, where applicable: * AS: (pt) Samoa Americana (EUA) · (en)
Related pages
Other websites
- Regular Vetoes and Pocket Vetoes: An Overview (report) by Kevin R. Kosar
- Senate Reference Webpage on Vetoes, which includes lists of vetoes from 1789 to the current day.