SC - Briefings by the Chairmen of Security Council Subsidiary Bodies
Statement by Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Harting, Permanent Representative of Austria
New York, 20 December 2010
Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to share with the Council some personal observations concerning the Committees I have had the honour to chair. More specifically, today I will speak about the Sudan Sanctions Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005). Finally, I will also say a few words on the state of play within the Informal Working Group on International Tribunals, which Austria has chaired since January 2009.
As Members of the Security Council will remember, I already had the chance to give my assessment on the work of the 1267 Committee on 15 November. I will therefore not reiterate what I said at this occasion, I will simply return to two points that I made in my personal capacity when I briefed the Council on on 15 November:
First, under the current Committee guidelines, if consensus cannot be reached, any delisting request may be submitted to the Council for review and subsequent majority decision. In my view it would thus seem only logical to adopt the same decision-making procedures, i.e. majority voting, for delisting decisions of the 1267 Committee.
Second, I also referred to the point that the procedure of the triennial reviews of the 1267 Committee could be changed to require a positive re-confirmation of each list entry under review. This adaption of the review process would have the same effect as the introduction of a time limit or “sunset clause” for the listings and would thus put an end from my point of view, in any case, to the question whether the sanctions regime is of a punitive or preventive nature.
Turning to the 1591 Sanctions Committee on the Sudan, let me say that this was a challenging task. It is not easy – if I may put it in these terms – to monitor and enforce an arms embargo that covers only part of a State’s territory in an environment where every use of arms potentially violates the embargo and where arms are used quite regularly.
While all Members of the Council and the Committee share the objective of bringing peace and stability to Darfur, their interpretation of the nature of the conflict, the role of sanctions in resolving the conflict and the sanctions regime itself differs. The work of the Committee would benefit from a common interpretation of the regime. In this regard, resolution 1945 (2010) was an important step to clarify the embargo exemptions and to require end-user documentation for arms supplies not prohibited by the embargo.
A main objective during Austria’s chairmanship was to promote dialogue between the Committee and all relevant stakeholders: As Chairman I maintained regular contacts with the Permanent Representative of the Sudan as well as with Permanent Representatives of other relevant States. Such direct contacts proved to be very useful and I believe should continue in the future.
We also established a regular dialogue with UNAMID through Committee meetings with the Joint Special Representative. The Committee held close contacts with DPKO on the development of provisional guidelines for peacekeeping missions to facilitate the work of panels of experts, which are used for all expert panels that interact with peacekeeping operations.
The Committee also made headway regarding its contacts with the private sector. It heard briefings by the Executive Director of the Global Compact and by the SRSG on Business and Human Rights. More needs to be done, however, to increase due diligence and create awareness of the sanctions regime among companies operating in Sudan, and particularly in Darfur.
As regards the travel ban and assets freeze, no persons have been designated on the Committee’s list since the adoption of resolution 1672 (2006). In my view, those responsible for attacks against the United Nations, especially UNAMID, clearly meet the listing criteria and should be considered for listing by the Committee in the future. I do believe that the Security Council does have a special responsibility in protecting the Missions it has mandated. In this context, I think, looking at listing people who have attacked these Missions is logical and of key importance and also a point for the credibility of the work of the Council. Let me also say that the same applies to individuals that commit sexual and gender-based violence. These crimes often continue to go unpunished and we believe that the Committee can also play an important role in alleviating this situation.
Regarding confidential annexes to reports received by the Committee, it would greatly facilitate the work of the Committee and indeed of the Council itself if these annexes, which mainly contain listing proposals, remained confidential. I would like to underline my full support for the work of the Panel of Experts. In order to provide the Committee with high-quality information, we must assist their work and fully respect their independence.
In view of the strong focus that my country has on the rule of law, we were also pleased and satisfied to be able to chair the Informal Working Group on International Tribunals. Under our chairmanship the Working Group held 26 meetings in 2009 and 25 meetings this year. The Group maintained a close dialogue with representatives of the affected countries and host countries.
In order to increase transparency, raise awareness, and provide an opportunity to hear the views of the broader UN membership, in October 2009, for the first time ever, the Austrian Mission organized an “Arria-Formula” meeting on “Residual Issues of the ICTY and the ICTR” that was open to all UN Member States. Moreover, at the biannual public Security Council briefings by the ICTY and the ICTR, I regularly briefed the Council on the activities of the Working Group, we started to publish annual reports of the Group and also included a chapter on the work of the Working Group for the first time in the Annual Report of the Security Council.
Over the past two years, Madam President, the Working Group has considered various requests by the Presidents of the Tribunals to facilitate their completion strategies. Since 2009 the Council adopted 9 resolutions on ICTY and ICTR introduced by my country after agreement reached in the Working Group. The last two resolutions, as Council Members will remember, resolutions 1954 and 1955 (2010), were adopted just last week.
After more than two years of negotiations, a final agreement on the establishment of an “International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals” is now – I strongly believe – within reach. The envisaged Mechanism will continue certain essential residual functions of the Tribunals, including trial of fugitives, management of archives, protection of witnesses and supervision of enforcement of sentences.
The package, Madam President, that I presented as Chairman together with our Legal Adviser, Mr. Konrad Bühler, who supported me in this matter, consists of the following elements: A resolution to be adopted under Chapter VII, in which the Security Council would decide to establish the Residual Mechanism with two branches – one for ICTR in Arusha and one for ICTY in The Hague; an Annex 1 with the statute for the Mechanism; and an Annex 2 with transitional arrangements.
The establishment of the Residual Mechanism will send a strong message of the Security Council against impunity: High-level fugitives indicted by the Tribunals such as Ratko Mladi? or Félicien Kabuga cannot hide out and escape justice. At the same time, the resolution will provide a clear signal for the Tribunals to expeditiously complete their work, prepare their closure and ensure a smooth transition to the Mechanism.
I believe that it is in the interest of all delegations to use this window of opportunity and conclude the negotiations. There is a sense of urgency for the Council to reach agreement now to allow for sufficient time to make the necessary arrangements for a smooth transition to the Mechanism, while avoiding any increase in costs. We have presented a carefully balanced compromise package that attempts to reconcile all the different views presented. All issues can be resolved with the necessary flexibility and political will. I therefore very much hope that we can adopt the resolution in the next few days before the forthcoming holiday season. I would like to call on all delegations to support us in this endeavour.
Before closing, I would like to express my gratitude to all delegations for their support and active contributions. I also thank the Monitoring Team and the Panel of Experts for their excellent work and cooperation. My sincere thanks also go to the Secretariat staff, in particular the Sanctions Branch and the Office of Legal Affairs, for their invaluable support and advice over the past two years, and I would like to thank my own collaborators who have made it much easier and in fact possible for me to chair three of these subsidiary bodies altogether.
