SECURITY COUNCIL ADOPTS REPORT TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Press Release
SC/6718

SECURITY COUNCIL ADOPTS REPORT TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Over 12 Months, Council Held 121 Meetings, Adopted 72 Resolutions, Issued 37 Presidential Statements

The Security Council this afternoon adopted its fifty-fourth annual report to the General Assembly covering the period 16 June 1998 to 15 June 1999. The report, a guide to the Council's activities during that 12-month period, will be submitted to the Assembly in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Charter.

During the year under review, the Council held 121 formal meetings, adopted 72 resolutions, issued 37 statements by the president and held 239 consultations of the whole totalling some 511 hours. Council members considered more than 90 reports of the Secretary-General and reviewed and processed over 1,437 documents and communications from States as well as regional and other intergovernmental organizations.

Part I of the report deals with questions relating to the Council's responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. In open meetings, members devoted much of their attention to conflicts in Africa, Iraq and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The Council met frequently on the following items: Iraq and Kuwait; Eritrea and Ethiopia; Kosovo, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Guinea-Bissau, Tajikistan, Somalia, Angola, Georgia and East Timor.

In addition, the Council also met on: the Middle East, Western Sahara; Cyprus; Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Haiti, the situation in Africa, threats to international peace and security caused by international terrorism, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the bombing of Iraq in November, the bombing of the United States Embassies in Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania in August, and the bombing of the Sudan, protection for humanitarian assistance, maintenance of peace and security and

Security Council - 2 -Press Release SC/6718 4040th Meeting (PM) 2 September 1999

post-conflict peace-building, protection of civilians in armed conflict; and humanitarian activities related to the Council.

Part II of the report deals with other maters considered by the Council, such as the consideration of the draft report to the General Assembly and matters relating to the documentation and working methods and procedures of the Council. Part III covers the work of the Military Staff Committee while Part IV lists communications on matters brought to the Council’s attention.

Part V of the draft report reviews the work of the subsidiary organs of the Council. It states that the period covered by the present report had been one of the most challenging in the relationship between the Council and Iraq. For more than half the period under review, the United Nations Special Commission, established by Council resolution 687 (1991) to monitor the elimination of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, had no presence in the country.

Other subsidiary organs which were active during the year under review included: the Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission; the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia; and the Security Council Committees concerning Iraq and Kuwait, Libya, Somalia, Angola, Rwanda, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Regarding the Council’s membership, the report recalls that on 8 October 1998, the Assembly elected, effective 1 January 1999, Argentina, Canada, Malaysia, Namibia and the Netherlands to fill vacancies resulting from the expiration on 31 December 1998 of the terms of Costa Rica, Japan, Kenya, Portugal and Sweden. The new Members’ terms will expire on 31 December 2000.

Introducing the draft report, the Officer-in Charge of the Security Council Affairs Division, Joseph Stephanides, said the format of the draft annual report before Council Members today provided a concise guide to the activities of the Council. It should be noted that, in addition to the extensive coverage provided in part V of the work of the subsidiary organs of the Council, the annual reports of the sanctions committees were to be found in Appendix XII of the report. Further, the monthly assessments of the work of the Council by former Presidents -- for the period covered by the report -- had been expanded to include statements to the press by those Presidents following consultations of the whole of the Council.

The meeting, the first for the month of September, began at 1:20 p.m. and was adjourned at 1:26 p.m.

* *** *