12/7/2002
Security Council Moves To Protect UN Peacekeepers From Potential Prosecution By ICC.

Following weeks of wrangling over sensitive issues concerning the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the United Nations Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution which effectively prevents any potential ICC prosecution of UN peacekeepers for one year, thus opening the way to the continuance of peacekeeping operations in Bosnia.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that he was deeply gratified that members of the Security Council had resolved this difficult issue. A UN spokesman said that Mr. Annan's main concerns were for the integrity of the United Nations Charter and the Statute of the International Criminal Court, and for the integrity of treaty law. He was also reported as being concerned for the unity of the Security Council and UN peacekeeping operations.

In taking its decision today, the Council invoked Article 16 of the ICC's Rome Statute, under which "no investigation or prosecution may be commenced or proceeded with… for a period of 12 months after the Security Council, in a resolution adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, has requested the Court to that effect." Such requests "may be renewed by the Council under the same conditions."

Following the text's adoption, the Council moved to extend the mandate of two UN operations: the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina - along with the UN-authorised multinational stabilisation force (SFOR) operating in the country - as well as the UN Mission of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP). The United States had threatened to veto the extension of peacekeeping operations in Bosnia unless its peacekeepers could be protected from the reach of the ICC.