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)). -------------- 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. -------------- 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. -------------- 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