EU Presidency Statement - Safety of UN and Associated Personnel

Mr. Chairman,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of the European Union. The acceding countries Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, the associated countries Bulgaria and Romania, align themselves with this statement.

Mr. Chairman,

The EU pays tribute to the victims of the heinous attack on the UN Headquarters in Baghdad, where the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 22 other UN officers and associated lost their lives. The EU strongly condemns such acts of violence against an Organization that is dedicated to the maintenance of international peace and security. The EU reiterates that such attacks are unjustifiable and intolerable and requests that strong measures be taken to arrest, prosecute and punish those who are responsible for such attacks. These atrocious acts not only caused the lost of human lives but also violated the principles and objectives of the UN Charter and seriously jeopardized the efforts of the UN to help the Iraqi people rebuild their country.

Mr. Chairman,

The Convention on the Safety of UN and associated personnel was adopted by the General Assembly in 1994. It entered into force in 1999. Since the primary responsibility for the security and protection of UN and associated personnel rests with the States hosting UN operations, we agree with the Secretary-General's Report (A/58/187) that the strength of the Convention's protective regime lies in the largest possible adherence to the Convention and on the readiness to implement its provisions. In the report the Secretary-General highlights also the difficulties that do not permit the widening of the scope of application of the 1994 Convention and recommends that serious consideration be given to the elimination of such difficulties

Mr. Chairman,

The EU reiterates its support for the short-term and long-term measures recommended by the Secretary-General in his 2000 Report, aimed at improving and enhancing the protective regime of the 1994 Convention. In the debate in the Ad Hoc Committee in March this year, many delegations showed great interest in this matter, as confirmed by the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee (A/58/52). On that occasion it was generally agreed that every effort should be made to strengthen the safety and security of UN and associated personnel, which are of major concern to the international community. The EU reaffirms that it attaches great importance to strengthening the safety and security of personnel engaged in UN peacekeeping and humanitarian operations.

Mr. Chairman,

Last August the Security Council adopted Resolution 1502 (2003) in which the Council underlined its awareness that "the protection of humanitarian personnel and UN and its associated personnel is a concern in situations of armed conflict and otherwise", and stated its concern "at the acts of violence in many parts of the world against humanitarian personnel and UN and its associated personnel". Therefore, the Council urged States to ensure that crimes against such personnel do not remain unpunished. The EU believes that in order to punish those responsible for such crimes it is necessary to strongly encourage universal participation in the 1994 Convention; to ensure its implementation as well as the automatic application of the protective regime of Convention to all operations conducted under UN authority and control.

The EU recalls that attacks intentionally directed against personnel involved in humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping missions in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations are a war crime according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Therefore, the EU believes that the International Criminal Court, having now become operational, could play a role in that regard and also notes the remarks of Secretary General on the ICC in paragraph 5 of his Report A/55/637.

Mr. Chairman,

At the meeting of the Working Group - which was held last week under the able guidance of Ambassador Christian Wenaweser, to whom we are grateful - we think that good progress was made and there was active participation in the discussion. The EU underlined several times that it attaches great importance to strengthening the safety and security of personnel engaged in UN peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, particularly since the EU and its Member States are among the most important contributors to such operations.

The EU reiterates that it considers the requirement of an exceptional risk declaration to be a major limitation to the Convention and supports the disposal of this requirement. In our view, the 1994 Convention should apply automatically, without distinction, to any operation conducted under UN authority and control.

In this regard, the EU continues in supporting the proposal presented by New Zealand concerning a draft Protocol to the 1994 Convention, as amended by the EU with the aim of clarifying the scope of Article 1 of that proposal.

In our view, the New Zealand proposal, which extends the automatic application of the Convention to all UN operations and presences, enhances considerably the protection of UN and associated personnel in the field. More specifically, the draft Protocol would dispense with the requirement of a "declaration" as a condition for the applicability of the 1994 Convention and would automatically include in the protective regime of the Convention all operations conducted under UN authority and control in the same way that peacekeeping operations are.

The EU fully endorses the conclusions and recommendations contained in the Report of the Working Group, in particular that the Ad Hoc Committee established under General Assembly Resolution 56/89 be reconvened with a mandate to expand the scope of legal protection under the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel through a legal instrument.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

| Top |

• EU Presidency Statement - Safety of UN and Associated Personnel (20/10/2004)
• EU Presidency Statement - Convention on Safety of UN Personnel (13/10/2003)
• EU Presidency Statement - The Safety of UN and Associated Personnel (1/10/2002)