What's In Blue

Posted Tue 20 Dec 2011

Resolutions on Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau

The Council is scheduled to adopt several resolutions tomorrow (Wednesday, 21 December), including on the mandate renewal of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA). (On 14 December, Margaret Vogt—head of BINUCA—briefed the Council following the recent publication of the Secretary-General’s report on the situation in CAR.) It seems that Council members generally agree on the need to support the peacebuilding process and the negotiations appear to have been relatively straightforward. A draft resolution has been put in blue and is due for adoption tomorrow morning.

It seems that some Council members, in negotiating BINUCA’s renewal this year, considered it more appropriate to highlight the ongoing challenges that exist in CAR in a resolution. (Following BINUCA’s establishment for one year in January 2010, the Council renewed its mandate in a presidential statement in December last year, until 31 December 2011.) This would seem to further harmonise the Council’s approach to mandate renewals, which are usually renewed by resolutions. It is also likely that BINUCA’s mandate will be renewed for 13 months, in line with the Council’s recent efforts to avoid numerous mandates expiring in December each year.

In addition to the BINUCA and UNDOF mandate renewals tomorrow (see previous What’s In Blue story), the Council is scheduled to adopt a resolution renewing the mandate of the UN’s Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) for 12 months. It seems that some Council members were in favour of including language on meeting benchmarks set in 2010 (for instance concerning the security sector and entrenchment of the rule of law). However, the final text appears likely to not include such language and seems to be essentially a technical roll-over of UNIOGBIS’s mandate.

Finally, the Council is also scheduled to adopt a resolution extending judges’ terms at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) tomorrow. It seems that the adoptions of resolutions on UNISFA (Abyei) and UNMIK (Kosovo)—which were scheduled for 21 December—have been postponed until a later date.

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