Chapter 4:   THE COUNCIL CONVENES

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

 

For 2024, the Security Council completes annual review of its agenda items

 

Council allows deletion of Guinea-Bissau item, signalling it has concluded its consideration, though contradictorily it maintains a sanctions regime and Committee

 

The weekly addendum of the Summary statement of matters of which the Security Council is seized which was published on 4 March 2024 indicated the results of the Council’s annual update of this important list of its agenda items (S/2024/10/Rev.1.Add.9).

 

So what exactly is the Summary Statement? Rule 11 of the Council’s Provisional Rules of Procedure provides that “The Secretary-General shall communicate each week to the representatives on the Security Council a summary statement of matters of which the Security Council is seized and of the stage reached in their consideration.” In 1946, the Chairman of the Council’s Committee of Experts concurred that the expression “matters of which the Security Council is seized” means “matters which have been on the agenda of previous meetings and have not been finally disposed of”. Thus the Summary Statement in effect is the Council’s “Agenda” of all the items before it. 

 

The Security Council is not limited to taking up only those matters which appear on the Summary Statement, but rather can add new matters at any time. As confirmed in presidential note S/2017/507, the Council’s continuing practice is automatically to include any new agenda item in the Summary Statement “once it has been adopted at a formal meeting of the Security Council”. This paragraph makes clear that the Council cannot simply decide to add a matter to the Summary Statement. Rather, the only way an agenda item can be added is as the result of the Council having convened an official meeting under that formulation. This means that a new item will not be added if it has only been taken up during closed consultations, an informal interactive dialogue, an Arria-formula meeting, or a video-teleconference during COVID-19.

 

In an effort to keep the Summary Statement current and manageable, the Security Council instituted a deletion process set out in presidential note S/2017/507, Section B. Under this procedure, the Security Council is to undertake an annual review of all agenda items listed on the Summary Statement. Thereafter, at the start of each year, all items which have not been considered at a formal Council meeting over the prior three years are designated as subject to deletion. Accordingly, the first Summary Statement issued in January 2024 (S/2024/10/Rev.1) listed the 15 agenda items subject to deletion in 2024. Pursuant to S/2017/507, UN Member States were then given the stipulated two-month period in which to send written requests for the retention of any of those items.

 

Evidencing the importance which interested Member States give to these older agenda items, letters requesting the retention of 14 of them were received (from Cuba, Georgia, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom, respectively) by 12 January 2024, even though the deadline would not be until 29 February. It is the Council’s practice to honour such requests, renewable annually, and consequently all 14 items will remain on the Summary Statement until the 2025 review process.

 

One additional agenda item was subject to deletion in 2024: “The situation in Guinea-Bissau”. The Security Council had first taken up this matter in 1998, but had held no formal meetings regarding that country since 10 August 2020. By the 29 February 2024 deadline, no request to retain the item was received from either a Council member or a non-Council Member State. Consequently, the item shows as deleted on the 4 March 2024 update of the Summary Statement.

 

This deletion has created a notable disconnect. Deletion of an agenda item from the Summary Statement signifies that the Security Council has completed its consideration of that matter. Yet in connection with Guinea-Bissau, the Council retains an ongoing sanctions regime which is overseen by a sanctions committee, both established in 2012 by resolution 2048 (2012). That resolution instituted a travel ban requiring all Member States to “take the necessary measures to prevent the entry into or transit through their territories” of designated individuals, except when humanitarian exemptions apply. The resolution states that the travel ban is aimed at individuals

 

“seeking to prevent the restoration of the constitutional order or taking action that undermines stability in Guinea-Bissau, in particular those who played a leading role in the coup d’état of 12 April 2012 and who aim, through their actions, at undermining the rule of law, curtailing the primacy of civilian power and furthering impunity and instability in the country”.

 

Currently, ten designated individuals remain on the travel ban list. In 2023, the Sanctions Committee met once in informal consultations, and conducted other work through written procedures. It also sent three communications to a Member State and other stakeholders regarding sanctions implementation. In addition, according to the Committee’s 2023 Annual Report, during the year the Chair “conducted informal bilateral consultations, including with the country concerned”.*

It is thus evident that although the Security Council has allowed the agenda item to be deleted from its Summary Statement, in fact the Council has not yet completed its consideration of this matter, absent a decision to delist the remaining 10 individuals and terminate the travel ban and the Committee.

 

As detailed in the book (page 525), the present situation relating to Guinea-Bissau is not the first time the Security Council has created a disconnect by allowing deletion of an agenda item, while still retaining a related sanctions regime and committee. In 2006, also because the Council had held no formal meetings over the relevant time period, “The situation concerning Rwanda” became subject to deletion. After no Member State requested its retention, the item was allowed to be deleted from the Summary Statement.

 

The following year, the Security Council wanted to hold a formal meeting to adopt a decision ending the requirement that the Rwandan government notify the Sanctions Committee of its arms imports. It was then that Council members became aware that the Rwanda agenda item was no longer on the Summary Statement. However, although disconcerting, this was no impediment to convening the intended meeting, as it will be recalled that the Council’s practice is that any agenda item adopted at a formal meeting will automatically be included in the Summary Statement. Consequently, the original Rwanda agenda formulation was resurrected, and the adoption meeting was held, after which the agenda item automatically was restored to the Summary Statement. The following year, by its resolution 1823 (2008), the Security Council terminated all remaining measures, and the Sanctions Committee. In 2009, on the Council’s proposal and in the absence of any objections, the agenda item was again deleted, this time definitively.

 

Thus as concerns Guinea-Bissau, when in the future the Security Council needs to hold a formal meeting – which, if not before, will be necessary when it is ready to terminate the travel ban and the Sanctions Committee – a process similar to the case of Rwanda is the likely scenario.

 

Since 2009, agenda items on the Summary Statement have been organized into two lists, known as “active” and “inactive”. The 2024 “active” list comprises all 51 items which have been taken up by the Council at a formal meeting within the prior three years. These items are shown in the first PDF below. 

 

The second PDF below shows the 14 “inactive” items which have not been taken up at a formal Council meeting within the prior three years, but now have been retained for one year. It also indicates the Member States which requested their retention. As will be seen, these latter items relate to situations which have not been considered by the Council at a formal meeting since 1949, 1958, 1961, 1965, 1971, 1973, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1991, 2009, 2017 and 2018. As noted in the book,

 

“Some Member States [have] felt strongly about retaining certain older items on the Summary Statement, even if they had not been actively considered for some decades. As explained to the authors, while they accepted that the Council had no plan to take up the matters at that time, they felt that deleting the items from the Summary Statement would send the wrong signal that the matters had been satisfactorily resolved, when that was not the case.”

 

As described in the book, in 1993 the Security Council first undertook to streamline the Summary Statement, which by that year had swelled to 207 agenda items. After considerable evolution, the 2024 Summary Statement now comprises 65 items. 

 

(This update supplements pages 229-233 of the book.) 

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* The Committee Chair for 2022-2023 was the representative of the United Arab Emirates. The Chair for 2024 is the representative of Guyana.

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