Briefing by Chairs of Subsidiary Bodies

(12 December 2022; 1500 hours)

Statement by Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj

Permanent Representative of India to the UN

-----

Please allow me to share a few reflections from my side as the Chair of three of the Security Council’s subsidiary bodies namely, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1373 (2001) concerning counter-terrorism, Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1970 (2011) concerning Libya and the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1988 (2011).

2. Although I became the Chair of these three Committees only in August, I will share my reflections, drawing also on the assessment and experience of the previous Chair, and my predecessor Ambassador Tirumurti as well.

3. Let me start with the Counter-Terrorism Committee. We were Chair of this important Committee since January 2022.

4. The Committee draws its mandate from resolution 1373 (2001) and more than 20 subsequent counter terrorism related resolutions of the Council, aimed at ensuring the implementation of these resolutions by member states, facilitating technical assistance to the member states, as well as organizing regional and thematic briefings on emergent CT issues.

5. The Committee remained active throughout the year, and has organized 28 meetings, comprising of open and closed briefings, plenary meetings, a special meeting and a press conference. During the year, 10 assessment visits were conducted in Africa, the Americas, Central Asia, Europe, Middle East, the Pacific and South-East Asia, and the reports and visit presentations were made to the Committee. The Committee is also planning to organize an open briefing on 20 December and a plenary and a closed meeting on 21 December 2022. Besides, the Chair of the Committee participated in 9 meetings on behalf of the Committee. A record 510 communications in the forms of internal notes and outgoing correspondences were issued during the year. The Committee issued 154 NOPs for concept notes, background notes, draft agendas and invites, reports, country assessments and stocktaking documents for the consideration of the committee and a subsequent adoption.

6. The highlight of the CTC, from our perspective, was the Special Meeting of the Committee in Mumbai and New Delhi on 28-29 October 2022. The committee paid homage to the victims of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai at a solemn wreath laying ceremony at the site of the attacks and also adopted the “Delhi Declaration on countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes”, following this Special Meeting. We have also worked out recommendations mentioned in the Declarations and have circulated these for consideration of Committee members.

7. Throughout the year, we had tried to promote coherence between different UN agencies through a one-UN approach, encouraged participation of civil society organizations, women, youth, and other private stakeholders in CTC’s counter terrorism discourse.

8. The Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1970 (2011) concerning Libya was also equally hectic. A few facts related to its working shows how much work was transacted in the last two years: there were 7 meetings, 575 written notes averaging more than one every single working day, 26 exemption requests which were dealt with, 70 mandated reports which were considered by the Committee and the Chair briefed this Council 7 times so far. I am slated to brief again, one last time, this coming Friday.

9. The work transacted in the Libya sanctions committee shows, in part, a fervent desire among the members of the Committee to ensure that the Committee supports the overall political objective of securing peace and stability in Libya. The enormous number of documents and exemption requests processed during this time also reflects on the Committee’s determination to ensure that Libyan wealth remains in Libyan hands.

10. The sanctions committee closely cooperated with the Libyan Mission in New York. It also provided opportunities for the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) to present their point of view before the Committee.

11. In my assessment, this work would not have been possible without the excellent cooperation extended by all members of the Committee, including those who served in the Committee in 2021, with the Chair.

12. Turning to the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1988 (2011), as you know, the main task of the Committee is to administer assets freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo measures against individuals, groups, undertakings, and entities associated with the Taliban in constituting a threat to the peace, stability, and security of Afghanistan. The implementation of sanctions was faced with a major political shift after the Taliban took power in August last year.

13. While the political situation in Afghanistan has changed, the work of the Committee remained as important as ever. India held the Presidency of the UN Security Council in the month of August 2021. Under our Presidency, the UN Council met thrice to discuss the evolving situation in Afghanistan, resulting in four outcome documents. These included three press statements and a landmark resolution. On 30 August 2021, the Council adopted UNSC Resolution (UNSCR) 2593, which comprehensively addressed the key pending issues relating to Afghanistan. The resolution demands that the Afghan territory should not be used to threaten or attack any country or to shelter or train terrorists or to plan and finance terrorist acts, pursuant to UNSCR 1267 (1999).

14. In November 2021, we organized a briefing by the OCHA to the Committee members to discuss the issues related to delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan and how to overcome those difficulties. Subsequently, the Security Council adopted resolution 2615 (2021) which clarified that provision of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan does not constitute a violation of paragraph 1 (a) of resolution 2255 (2015), and permitted the processing of payments of funds, other financial assets, economic resources, and provision of goods and services needed to support humanitarian aid delivery. We are happy to note that the humanitarian carve-out provided by this resolution is being utilized by the humanitarian service providers. Under our Chair, we organized a subsequent briefing by the OCHA in April 2022 to enable the Committee members to get an overview of the working of the resolution.

15. On the other hand, a travel ban exemption granted in April 2019 to a group of listed Taliban, with a view to enable them to engage in peace and stability discussions in a range of countries, expired in August 2022. There were concerns expressed by Committee members about the situation on the human rights in Afghanistan. Subsequently, the travel ban exemption was not extended since the Committee was unable to reach a consensus on the same. However, the Committee did stand ready to grant exemptions on a case-by-case basis and we, as the Chair, sought to facilitate the same.

16. In the final analysis, it is well-known that as a contiguous neighbour and a friend of the people, Afghanistan is close to our hearts. At the same time, we tried to steer the affairs of the sanctions committee with impartiality, objectivity, and neutrality.

17. I would like to present the following broad takeaways from our time as Chairs of these sanctions committees:

One, when incoming Security Council members express a preference to shoulder responsibility as the Chair of a particular subsidiary body, and if there is consensus among the other incoming members, it is important for the P-5 to respect the consensus of the E-10 and take their preferences seriously.

Two, the function or dysfunction of a subsidiary body depends on the cooperation of its members. We have been fortunate enough to have received excellent cooperation from everyone during our tenure.

Three, we need to work out a solution for bringing predictability to the scheduling of Committee meetings. Throughout the year, the subsidiary bodies had to face several rescheduling of meetings mainly due to clash with the work of the Council and the resultant unavailability of interpretation, which caused great inconvenience to visiting participants and speakers. A more workable solution such as confirmed availability of second team once in a week on a given day could be made a practice.

Four, the functioning of the Committees is still not transparent, and they are shrouded in mystery, especially to non-Council members. It is important to enhance transparency of the functioning of the Council if its credibility is to be maintained.

Five, the credibility of a Committee also depends on how objective and fair its decisions are perceived to be. Any impression that decisions are being taken based on political preferences rather than objective, evidence-based reasoning will continue to damage the credibility of the Committees.

Six and last, our work as the Chair would not have been as smooth if it was not for the assistance and cooperation provided by the Secretariat. I would, therefore, like to especially acknowledge the cooperation extended to us by the Secretariats of the Counter-Terrorism Committee, the 1970 sanctions committee on Libya and the 1988 sanctions committee, as well as the Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate.

Thank you!