This article provides a comprehensive overview of the concept of the veto and its various forms as they have evolved in the practice of the United Nations Security Council. It focuses in particular on the notion of the “hidden veto” and examines its fundamental role in the Council’s decision-making process. In the post–Cold War era, the use of the hidden veto, primarily exercised through informal consultations, has significantly increased among the permanent members of the Security Council. The hidden veto has influenced the Council’s decision-making process in two primary ways. First, through agenda control, preventing the Security Council from formally addressing certain issues in other words, through the censorship imposed by the five permanent members. Second, by blocking action when an unwanted item does appear on the agenda. In such cases, mechanisms such as deletion of language, softening of tone, and dilution of resolution wording come into play. They also include the weakening of legal definitions of international crises, self-censorship and compounded hidden vetoes, and even reverse vetoes.