Summary: EU Presidency Statement - United Nations: Special Committee ont the Charter of the UN and on Strengthening of the Role of the Organization (7 February 2007: New York)
61st Session of the General Assembly, Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization, Statement on behalf of the European Union, by Thomas Fitschen, Counsellor (Legal Affairs), Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations, New York
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania and Serbia, as well as the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this statement.
At the outset I should like to congratulate you, Mr Chairman, and the other members of the Bureau upon your election. Rest assured that the European Union will make every effort to support you in making this session of the Charter Committee a success. I should also like to thank the Secretariat for their assistance in preparing and servicing our meeting.
Mr Chairman,
As we are about to embark on our work this year, allow me to make a few general remarks on the working methods of this Committee. As we all know, the General Assembly, in its Resolution 61/38, has noted with appreciation the working paper on this issue adopted by the Committee at its last session, but has also requested us to continue to discuss ways and means of improving our work as a matter of priority. The EU has, as you will recall, always been in favour of improving the work of the
Committee, and has welcomed the adoption of the working paper at the last session, based on proposals submitted by Japan and a number of other states. The progress made therein, however, was limited, and the EU would have favoured more vigorous steps. We on our part are certainly ready to continue that exercise and to carefully consider any new proposal in that regard.
The key to a meaningful work of the Committee, however, lies only in part in the rules and procedures it has agreed to follow. As some of the issues before us have been lingering on our agenda for quite some time now without any immediate chance of reaching consensus, we think that we need to take a sharp, fresh look at the issues before us. In our view we should continue work in those areas where agreement is possible and results can be achieved, and decide to reconsider or discontinue those
questions where, over the years, no such progress could be achieved. At the moment we would therefore express some caution concerning the inclusion of new items on our agenda.
Mr. Chairman,
One such issue where the proposals that had been submitted earlier have been somehow overtaken by events elsewhere is the question of the implementation of the provisions of the Charter related to assistance to third states affected by the application of sanctions.
The EU has underlined time and again, in this Committee and elsewhere, that it considers sanctions, applied in accordance with the UN Charter, to be an important tool in the maintenance and restoration of international peace and security. This has also been recognized by the World Summit in 2005. Sanctions need to be designed with care, and with due regard to minimizing any adverse impact they may have on third parties so as to uphold their credibility and efficiency. They should be implemented
and monitored effectively, with clear benchmarks, and should be reviewed periodically so that they remain in place for as limited a time as necessary to achieve their purpose. On this basis the EU has always participated actively in ongoing discussions relating to the development and review of sanctions regimes, in the UN system and elsewhere.
In this context we note with interest the most recent report by the Secretary-General on the provisions of the Charter related to assistance to third states affected by the application of sanctions (UN Doc. A/61/304, dated 31 August 2006) that had been requested by the General Assembly. In his report the Secretary-General has stated that during the past year no sanction committee was approached by any Member State concerning special economic problems arising from the implementation of sanctions
against others. In the same report the Secretary-General concluded that "all of the Council's existing sanctions regimes are now targeted in nature, and the unintended consequences for civilian populations and third states are thereby minimized".
The European Union would like to recall that the reports by the Secretary-General for the past five years have noted no such communication or report by any government. The European Union takes this as ample proof that the work of Member States is indeed bearing fruit. It seems to us that the methods adopted by the Security Council and its committees during the past few years to calibrate sanctions more finely are increasingly successful in avoiding unintended effects on third parties.
We have also noted with particular satisfaction that the Security Council itself reiterated, in a presidential statement issued on 22 June 2006 after the debate on the rule of law, its resolve "to ensure that sanctions are carefully targeted in support of clear objectives, and are implemented in ways that balance effectiveness against possible adverse consequences".
The fact that the Security Coucil, in its resolution 1698, dated 31 July 2006, relating to the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has commissioned a special report on the potential economic, social and humanitarian impact of possible measures on that country's population, in our view demonstrates that the Security Council actually follows up on its resolve.
In addition the Council also made notable progress on another issue related to the fine-tuning of sanctions, namely the question of listing and de-listing of individuals and entities. By Resolution 1730, adopted on 19 December 2006, a focal point and a procedure valid for all sanctions committees has been established whereby requests for de-listing can now be submitted directly by the targeted individuals and entities.
With respect to the consolidated Al-Qaida/Taliban sanctions list, the standard cover sheet adopted in July 2006 by the Committee established under Resolution 1267 as well as the new procedures regarding listing proposals as foreseen in Security Council Resolution 1735, adopted on 22 December 2006, are further important step in the ongoing process of rendering these procedures more predictable, transparent and, ultimately, fair.
And finally I should like to mention, in the list of last year's accomplishments regarding the questions before this Committee, the final report of the Informal Working Group of the Security Council on General Issues of Sanctions, as endorsed by the Security Council in Resolution 1732 of 21 December 2006. The Committee, which had been tasked to develop general recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness of UN sanctions, concluded that - and I quote - "for targeted sanctions to be
effective, appropriate action must be taken at all decision-making levels: the Security Council, the sanctions committee, Member States and their administrative agencies. Proper design, implementation, ongoing evaluation and follow-up of sanctions regimes are key elements that contribute to the effectiveness of sanctions." To achieve these goals, the Committee has listed an impressive range of best practices and methods which in our view will definitely contribute to making sanctions better
targeted and more effective than ever before.
The developments just mentioned clearly show that the concerns about the effects of sanctions - concerns which had been raised also by delegations here in this Committee, and which have motivated, inter alia, the papers submitted by the Russian Federation and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya - have indeed been taken up and addressed effectively by the Security Council. The Charter Committee, when dealing with the issue at stake at its current session, should take all of this into due account. It is
in our view time that this Committee, which has been dealing with the question of effects of sanctions for a long time, acknowledges these developments in other for a and reflect upon the usefulness of continuing the discussions on this issue here in this Committee.
Mr Chairman,
as to the issue of the peaceful settlement of disputes, the EU would like to recall the duty of members of the United Nations under Art. 2 para. 3 of the Charter to settle their international disputes by peaceful means and in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. This is one of the basic principles of the United Nations. It is one of the key principles on which today's international order is built, and we have noted with satisfaction that the
Summit Outcome Document has also reminded States of this obligation.
Art. 33 of the Charter again spells out this duty of parties to a dispute to seek a peaceful solution at an early stage. It mentions a whole range of means from which the parties can freely chose - from enquiry and mediation to arbitration or a judicial settlement. The International Court of Justice plays of course a very important role in this regard as the principal judicial organ of the organisation, with an impressive record of adjudicating disputes among states over the past sixty
years.
But Art. 33 does not concern the parties alone. One should not forget that Chapter VI places this obligation within the overall context of the maintenance of peace and security, thus relating it also to the work of the Security Council. We have noted with interest that the President of the International Court of Justice, Judge Rosalyn Higgins, recently reminded the Council of its possibilities under Art. 36 to recommend appropriate procedures as a means of carrying out its own mandate to
maintain peace and security.
* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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