Insights on Afghanistan
Council members will have their first meeting today (Friday, 11 March) at the expert level on the draft UNAMA resolution. Members had received a draft text from Germany–the lead country on this issue–earlier this week following discussions in the Core Group on Afghanistan last week.
It appears that there is unlikely to be any major changes to UNAMA’s mandate, particularly with regard to its four main priorities (coordinating international assistance, improving civil-military coordination, supporting Afghan-led reconciliation and reintegration programmes and election and electoral reform). The resolution is expected to reflect some of the major events over the last year such as the Kabul Conference as well as the transition to Afghan leadership. Looking ahead it is likely to include references to the UN role in supporting future Afghan elections and the sustainability of the electoral process.
There will be intensive expert level meetings next week till Friday, which is the target date for the negotiations on the draft UNAMA resolution to be concluded. The negotiaions may be complicated as a result of requests from the Karzai government to trim back the mandate in certain areas. The adoption of this resolution is scheduled on 22 March, one day before UNAMA’s mandate expires.
