EU Presidency Statement - Safety of UN and Associated Personnel

Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Countries Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia*, the countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential Candidate Countries Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA country Iceland, member of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this declaration.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union welcomes the progress that has been made within the Working Group on the scope of legal protection under the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, which convened on 11, 12 and 15 October.

We feel that this debate was conducted in a very constructive atmosphere and are especially pleased with the Chairman's text that served as the basis of this debate and will continue to serve as the basis for our future deliberations.

In this respect, we would like to thank the Chairman of the Working Group, Ambassador Wenaweser of Liechtenstein, in particular, for his efforts and excellent guidance of our work. The EU also extends special thanks to New Zealand for its endeavours.

The European Union continues to support the preparation of an additional protocol to the 1994 Convention, which would upon its acceptance by States broaden the scope of legal protection under the Convention. Its protective regime would then also cover UN and associated personnel of certain UN operations other than peacekeeping operations, and so dispense of the need for a "declaration of exceptional risk".

Furthermore, the European Union wants to emphasise that achieving the broadest possible legal protection can be done without affecting the sovereign rights of host States, notably vis-à-vis locally recruited personnel. In this regard, we would like to refer to Article III of the Chairman's text, which expressly states that the right of a host State to exercise its jurisdiction in accordance with its international law obligations is not prejudiced by its duties under Article 8 of the Convention.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union stands ready to continue our discussions in the Ad Hoc Committee on the basis of the Report of the Working Group, in particular the Chairman's text. We are willing and ready to listen to arguments put forward in favour of other proposals. But the European Union hopes and expects that the General Assembly will soon reach a consensus on this important issue of protection of UN and associated personnel, which is of common interest to the Organisation and the UN Member States alike.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman

* Croatia continues to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process

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• EU Presidency Statement - Scope of Legal Protection under the Convention on the Safety of UN and Associated Personnel (12/4/2004)
• EU Presidency Statement - Safety of UN and Associated Personnel (23/10/2003)
• EU Presidency Statement - Convention on Safety of UN Personnel (13/10/2003)