2008 MEETING OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON THE

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000735

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: UNSC PTER PREL UNGA
SUBJECT: 2008 MEETING OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON THE
CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS

REF: A. IO/USUN EMAIL (EDMONDSON/WILCOX)-02/22/08

B. B. USUN 1125 (2007)

C. C. USUN 990 (2007)

D. D. USUN 890 (2007)


1. (U) BEGIN SUMMARY: The Special Committee on the Charter
of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of
the Organization ("Charter Committee"),a sub-Committee of
the General Assembly Legal Committee, held its annual meeting
at UN Headquarters from February 27-March 7, 2008. The
Committee or its working groups met February 27-29, March
3-5, and March 7. The Committee focused on a Russian working
paper aimed at establishing basic conditions and criteria for
the use of sanctions and other coercive measures and a new
proposal by the Rio Group for the Committee to consider the
legal aspects of UN reform, but did not reach consensus on
either. The Committee's report to the General Assembly
(A/63/33) can be found at http://www.un.org/documents. END
SUMMARY.


2. (U) During the Committee's opening session, USUN
delivered a brief statement addressing issues on the agenda,
based on past U.S. statements. Among other things, USUN
argued that many of the long-standing issues before the
Committee have been addressed elsewhere and said the Charter
Committee should not aim to devise norms concerning the
design and implementation of sanctions. Other delegations
making formal opening statements were Slovenia (on behalf of
the European Union),the Dominican Republic (on behalf of the
Rio Group),and Cuba (on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM)).

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Russian Sanctions Paper
--------------


3. (SBU) The Committee focused its discussions on Russia's
paper on the basic conditions for sanctions, on which General
Assembly Resolution 62/69 tasked the Committee to continue
its considerations "on a priority basis." NAM delegations
supported the paper and pressed for its immediate adoption.
The EU, which had argued at previous Committee meetings that
the paper duplicated sanctions-related work carried out
elsewhere in the UN, engaged actively in discussions and
signaled its willingness to adopt the paper. (COMMENT: The
EU's decision to engage reflected its assessment that, in
light of the significant amendments Russia made last year to
accommodate delegations' concerns, it would be preferable to
agree on the paper, paving the way for a deal under which the
Committee would remove the other long-standing proposals on
sanctions from its agenda. END COMMENT.) The key amendments
the EU sought concerned the procedures for removing
individuals and entities from sanctions lists and strongly
supported language in the paper concerning the need for
sanctions regimes to protect human rights. The U.S. changes
presented by USUN (ref A) proved controversial, with the NAM
opposing them actively and introducing numerous
counter-proposals that made provisions in the original text
even less acceptable.


4. (U) The Committee did not reach consensus on the Russian
paper, but the Committee agreed to recommend that the
Committee continue to consider the paper, on a priority
basis, at its next meeting, "with a view to focusing on the
outstanding issues." The paper, reflecting bracketed
comments made by various delegations, is annexed to the
Committee's report.

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Other Issues: Maintenance of International
Peace and Security
--------------


5. (U) The Committee also briefly addressed, but reached no
conclusions on, the implementation of the provisions of the
UN Charter relating to assistance to third States affected by
sanctions, Libya's 2002 working paper on sanctions, and
Cuba's 1997 and 1998 working papers on strengthening the role
of the UN and enhancing its effectiveness.


6. (U) Belarus reiterated the importance of its 2005 working
paper, prepared with the Russian Federation, recommending
that the General Assembly request an advisory opinion from
the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legal
consequences of the use of force by states without prior
authorization by the Security Council, except in the exercise
of the right to self-defense. A number of NAM delegations
supported the proposal, but the Committee did not reach
consensus on it and decided merely to keep it on its agenda.

-------------- --------------
Repertory of Practice of UN Organs,


Repertoire of the Practice of the Security Council
-------------- --------------


7. (U) The Secretariat briefed the Committee on the status
of the preparation of the Repertory and the Repertoire, and
its ongoing efforts to reduce their respective backlogs. The
Secretariat advised that supplement 11 had been published and
that an advance version of supplement 12 was available on the
Internet. Consistent with its efforts to make the entire
publication available in the UN's six official languages, the
Secretariat said all published volumes of the Repertoire in
French had been posted on on-line. At the conclusion of the
meeting, the Committee agreed, among other things, to
recommend that the General Assembly reiterate its call for
voluntary contributions to the trust funds for the Repertoire
and the Repertory and call upon the Secretary-General to
continue his efforts to update the two publications.

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Working Methods
--------------


8. (SBU) The Dominican Republic, on behalf of the Rio Group,
submitted a written proposal for the General Assembly to
assign a new item to the Charter Committee, entitled
"Consideration of the legal aspects of the reform of the
United Nations." The Rio Group proposed that, under this
item, the Committee, at the request of the General Assembly,
would undertake the technical and legal review of matters
such as amendments to the UN Charter that might be necessary
to implement the GA's reform decisions. Several delegations,
including the EU, raised questions about the proposal,
including whether the General Assembly would assign the item
to the Committee in advance of a specific General Assembly
request for the Committee to examine a topic relating to the
legal aspects of UN reform. Although the Committee did not
reach consensus on the proposal, it decided to keep it on its
agenda.
Khalilzad