As the world suffers from serious human rights violations and civilian devastation in the violence-stricken Middle East and Africa, a global rights organization has criticized the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), saying that it has done too little to protect human rights and has left many civilians suffering in war zones in Syria, Iraq, Gaza, Israel and Ukraine. Amnesty International called on the P5+1, the permanent members of the UNSC, Britain, France, the U.S., Russia and China in addition to Germany, "to adopt a code of conduct agreeing to voluntarily refrain from using the veto in a way which would block Security Council action in situations of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity." Amnesty's call for the five nations to give up their veto rights is backed by more than 40 members of the U.N. and is seen as an "important first step" to save many civilians lives.In its international report for 2014, Amnesty International underscored the ineffective structure of the UNSC in resolving the crisis, as the international body has "repeatedly failed to address the crisis [all around the world], when countless lives could still have been saved.""In the past four years, more than 200,000 people have died – overwhelmingly civilians – and mostly in attacks by government forces. Around 4 million people from Syria are now refugees in other countries. More than 7.6 million are displaced inside Syria," Amnesty's annual report on the state of human rights in 160 countries stated.Amnesty called the UNSC's response to conflicts and human rights abuses "shameful and ineffective." Regarding the human suffering in Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Central African Republic and many other places hit by violence, "We are now seeing violence on a mass scale and an enormous refugee crisis caused by that violence," Salil Shetty, Amnesty's secretary general, said.Even prior to the Amnesty report, the veto power of the P5 had been criticized. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's "the world is bigger than five" campaign argues that "the veto rights of the five permanent members of the UNSC is inherited from the World War II period and does not comply with the current level of democratic consciousness of the world."The veto power has been defined as "an undemocratic instrument wielded by the world powers to their own advantage, as defined by their respective governments, regardless of human rights international law." The campaign also urges for a more effective structure to provide accountability, good governance and fair representation."The U.S. has used its veto 83 times. France has used its veto 18 times. China has used its veto nine times, the U.K. has used its veto 32 times. The Soviet Union used the veto 119 times and Russia has used the veto 10 times."The UNSC is composed of five permanent and 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the U.N. General Assembly. Other than the 15 acting members, a U.N. member state can participate in the discussions without a vote.Turkey failed to win a seat on the UNSC after the U.N.'s 193 member states voted in October 2014. Opposition to Turkey's membership to the UNSC came from some Arab countries that oppose Turkey's stance on Egypt.