SIXTH COMMITTEE: RESOLUTION ON CRIMINAL

UNCLAS STATE 157737

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL KPKO UNGA UNSC
SUBJECT: SIXTH COMMITTEE: RESOLUTION ON CRIMINAL
ACCOUNTABILITY OF UN OFFICIALS AND EXPERTS ON MISSION

REF: A. (A) USUN 988

B. (B) STATE 140490


1. (U) USUN is authorized to join consensus in the Sixth
Committee on a resolution (paragraph 3) on establishing
procedures for holding UN officials and experts on mission
(UN international civilian staff, including UN civilian
police) accountable for criminal acts committed while on
duty. The Sixth Committee is expected to approve the text
no later than November 15 and refer the resolution to the
General Assembly. The GA will then adopt the resolution
by consensus, most likely sometime in December.


2. (U) Background: General Assembly resolution 59/300 of
June 22, 2005 approved creation of a group of legal
experts to provide advice on procedures for holding UN
international civilian staff, including civilian police
officers, accountable for criminal acts committed while on
duty, while ensuring that they receive due process.
While this issue arose in the context of UNGA discussions
of how to eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse by UN
peacekeepers, it is likely that any procedures established
would apply as well to other forms of criminal misconduct,
and would be applicable to a wide range of UN operations
and programs. An Ad Hoc Committee was established in
December 2006, met in April 2007 to consider the Legal
Experts' report, and asked the Sixth Committee to discuss
the matter further during its October/November 2007
meetings. The Secretariat in September 2007 issued a Note
strongly advocating negotiation of an international
convention (A/62/329). On review, the Sixth Committee
(including the U.S.) concluded that there was very little
useful information available on the extent of the problem
and what steps would best address it. The draft
resolution calls on States to review their own domestic
criminal laws and to cooperate with the UN and other
Member States, including by sharing information on steps
taken to investigate and prosecute crimes by their own
citizens serving with UN operations and programs. The
resolution sets dates (April 7 to 11, 2008) for the next
meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee and asks the
Secretary-General to report to the next session of the GA

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on investigations and prosecutions.


3. (U) Begin text
The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolution 59/281 of 29 March 2005, in which
it endorsed the recommendation in paragraph 56 of the
report of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations
that the Secretary-General make available to the United
Nations membership a comprehensive report on the issue of
sexual exploitation and abuse in United Nations
peacekeeping operations,

Noting that the Secretary-General, on 24 March 2005,
transmitted to the President of the General Assembly a
report of his Adviser concerning sexual exploitation and
abuse by United Nations peacekeeping personnel,

Recalling its resolution 59/300 of 22 June 2005 endorsing
the recommendation of the Special Committee on
Peacekeeping Operations that a group of legal experts be
established to provide advice on the best way to proceed
so as to ensure that the original intent of the Charter of
the United Nations can be achieved, namely that United
Nations staff and experts on mission would never be
effectively exempt from the consequences of criminal'acts
committed at their duty station, nor unjustly penalized
without due process,

Reaffirming the need to promote and ensure respect for the
principles and rules of international law,

Reaffirming that the present resolution is without
prejudice to the privileges and immunities of United
Nations officials and experts on mission and the United
Nations under international law,

Reaffirming also the obligation of United Nations
officials and experts on mission to respect the national
laws of the host State, as well as the right of the host
State to exercise, where applicable, its criminal
jurisdiction, in accordance with the relevant rules of
international law and agreements governing operations of
United Nations missions,

Deeply concerned by reports of criminal conduct, and
conscious that such conduct, if not investigated and, as
appropriate, prosecuted, would create the negative
impression that United Nations officials and experts on
mission operate with impunity,

Conscious of the importance of protecting the rights of
victims of criminal conduct, as well as ensuring adequate
protection for witnesses, and noting also the work of the
Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on assistance and support
to victims of sexual exploitation and abuse,

Recalling its resolution 61/29 of 4 December 2006,
establishing the Ad Hoc Committee on criminal
accountability of United Nations officials and experts on
mission,

Noting that the Special Committee on Peace-keeping
operations, in paragraph 75 of its Report, looks forward
to the conclusions of the Ad Hoc Committee,

Having considered the report of the Group of Legal Experts
established by the Secretary-General pursuant to
resolution 59/300, the report of the Ad Hoc Committee, as
well as the Note by the Secretariat on criminal
accountability of United Nations officials and experts on
mission,

Convinced of the need for the United Nations and its
member States to urgently take strong and effective steps
to ensure criminal accountability of United Nations
officials and experts on mission,


1. Expresses its appreciation for the work done by the Ad
Hoc Committee on criminal accountability of United Nations
officials and experts on mission and the Working Group of
the Sixth Committee on the same subject;


2. Strongly urges States to take all appropriate measures
to ensure that crimes by United Nations officials and
experts on mission do not go unpunished and that the
perpetrators of such crimes are brought to justice,
without prejudice to the privileges and immunities of such
persons and the United Nations under international law,
and in accordance with international human rights
standards, including due process;


3. Strongly urges all States to consider establishing, to
the extent that they have not yet done so, jurisdiction
particularly over crimes of a serious nature, as known in
their existing domestic criminal laws, committed by their
nationals while serving as United Nations officials or
experts on mission, at least where the conduct as defined
in the law of the State establishing jurisdiction also
constitutes a crime under the laws of the host State;


4. Encourages all States to cooperate with each other and
with the United Nations in the exchange of information and
in facilitating the conduct of investigations and, as
appropriate, prosecution of United Nations officials and
experts on mission who are alleged to have committed
crimes of a serious nature, in accordance with their
domestic laws and applicable United Nations rules and
regulations, fully respecting due process rights, as well
as to consider strengthening the capacities of their
national authorities to investigate and prosecute such
crimes;


5. Requests the Secretariat to ensure that requests to
member States seeking personnel to serve as experts on
mission make States aware of the expectation that persons
ho serve in that capacity should meet high standards in
their conduct and behavior and are aware that certain
conduct may amount to a crime for which they may be held
accountable;


6. Urges the Secretary-General to continue to take such
other practical measures as are within his authority to
strengthen existing training on United Nations standards
of conduct, including through pre-deployment and
in-mission induction training for United Nations officials
and experts on mission;


7. Decides that the Ad Hoc Committee on criminal
accountability of United Nations officials and experts on
mission shall reconvene on 7, 8, 9 and 11 April 2008, for
the purpose of continuing the consideration of the report
of the Group of Legal Experts, in particular its legal
aspects, taking into account the views of member States,
and the information contained in the Note by the
Secretariat, and that the work shall continue during the

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sixty-third session of the General Assembly within the
framework of a working group of the Sixth Committee;


8. Requests the Ad Hoc Committee to submit a report on its
work to the General Assembly at the sixty-third session;

9. Requests also the Secretary-General to bring credible
allegations that reveal that a crime may have been
committed by United Nations officials and experts on
mission to the attention of the States against whose
nationals such allegations are made, and to request from
those States an indication on the status of their efforts
to investigate and, as appropriate, prosecute crimes of a
serious nature, as well as on the types of appropriate
assistance States may wish to receive from the Secretariat
for the purposes of such investigations and prosecutions;


10. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the
General Assembly at its sixty-third session on the
implementation of the present resolution on the basis of
information received from Governments, in particular with
respect to paragraphs 3 and 9;


11. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its
sixty-third session the item entitled "Criminal
accountability of United Nations officials and experts on
mission".
RICE