VZCZCXYZ0003
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #7737 3222212
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 182201Z NOV 07
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 0000

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