Chapter 4:   THE COUNCIL CONVENES

Section 3:   Agenda and Summary statement of matters of which the Security Council is seized

 

By presidential note, Council decides to create a new agenda item for ICTY/ICTR issues

 

Although the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) had completed its work as of 31 December 2015, the Security Council continued to use the dual agenda items – that for the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and that for the ICTR – at all subsequent meetings when it considered the annual reports or assessments relating to the ongoing work of the ICTY as well as the follow-on work of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) with respect to cases relating to Rwanda.

 

Then, in a press statement issued on 31 December 2017 (SC/13151), the Security Council members marked the closure, on that date, of the ICTY.  In the press statement, they also recalled that the IRMCT had been established to carry out the residual functions of the ICTY and the ICTR.

 

In light of the fact that beginning in 2018, both the ICTY and the ICTR had completed their work, on 2 February 2018, the Security Council issued a Note by the President (S/2018/90) by which it decided that

 

“henceforth issues pertaining to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals will be considered under an item entitled ‘International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals’ (IRMCT), under which will be subsumed the earlier consideration by the Council of issues pertaining to the items entitled ‘International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991’ and ‘International Criminal Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide and Other Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Rwanda and Rwandan Citizens Responsible for Genocide and Other Such Violations Committed in the Territory of Neighbouring States between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994’.”

 

The first formal Council meeting under the updated agenda item was convened on 19 March 2018, when the Council adopted S/PRST/2018/6 requesting the Residual Mechanism to present its latest progress report by 15 April 2018 (S/PV.8208).  However, consistent with recent practice, the Council did not wait until the first adoption of the updated agenda item at a formal meeting, pursuant to Rule 9 of its Provisional Rules of Procedure, to reflect the new agenda item in the Summary statement of matters of which the Security Council is seized.  Rather, in the weekly Addendum to the Summary statement (S/2018/10/Add.5) issued after the publication of the Note by the President, the updated agenda was set out as item 12, with an explanatory footnote.

 

The Note by the President of 2 February 2018, by which the Security Council decided to update the ICTY-ICTR agenda item, is the latest in a series of such presidential notes modifying agenda items.  A related article on this website describes the Note by the President (S/2016/560) by which the Security Council decided that issues pertaining to peacebuilding and post-conflict peacebuilding would, as from 22 June 2016, be considered under the agenda item entitled “Peacebuilding and sustaining peace”, under which would be subsumed the Council’s earlier consideration of those issues under the item, “Post-conflict peacebuilding”.

 

Another article on this website describes the Note by the President (S/2013/657) by which the Security Council decided that issues pertaining to the Sudan and South Sudan, including the African Union/United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and Council resolution 2046 (2012), would, as from 11 November 2013, be considered under the agenda item entitled “Reports of the Secretary-General on the Sudan and South Sudan”.

 

In addition, the book (pages 216-217) describes three earlier cases in which, by a Note by the President, the Council decided that:

 

• Issues pertaining to Mali which had formerly been considered under the agenda item “Peace and security in Africa” would thereafter be considered under the agenda item entitled “The situation in Mali” (S/2012/961);

 

• Issues pertaining to Libya which had formerly been considered under the agenda item “Peace and security in Africa” would thereafter be considered under the agenda item entitled “The situation in Libya” (S/2011/141); and

 

• Issues relating to the return of all Kuwaiti property, the repatriation or return of all Kuwaiti and third-country nationals or their remains, and the United Nations Compensation Commission would be considered under the agenda item entitled “The situation between Iraq and Kuwait”, while other issues that did not fall under that category would thereafter be considered under the agenda item entitled “The situation concerning Iraq” (S/2005/251).

 

(This update supplements pages 216-217 of the book.)