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7872nd Security Council Meeting: Situation in Central African Republic
Unanimously adopting resolution 2339 (2017), the Council also decided that the resolution’s asset-freezing provisions should be applied to individuals and entities that the Sanctions Committee designated as being involved in planning, directing or committing acts of sexual and gender-based violence. It extended the arms embargo, asset freeze and travel bans until 31 January 2018.
Expressing particular concern over reports that illicit arms-trafficking networks continued to reach armed groups, the Council reiterated its call upon the Central African Republic authorities to address the illicit transfer, destabilizing accumulation and misuse of small arms and light weapons, and to ensure the collection and/or destruction of surplus, seized, unmarked or illicitly held weapons and ammunition.
The Council also decided that arms-embargo measures should not apply to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), African Union Regional Task Force, European Union missions or the French forces deployed in the country. Additionally, the measures should not apply to supplies brought into the Central African Republic by Chadian or Sudanese forces solely for their own use in international patrols.
Concerning the new listing criterion, the Council requested that the Secretary-General’s Special Representatives for Children and Armed Conflict, and for Sexual Violence in Conflict, continue to share relevant information with the Sanctions Committee, in accordance with paragraph 7 of resolution 1960 (2010) and paragraph 9 of resolution 1998 (2011).
By new provisions contained in the 39-paragraph resolution, the Council encouraged Member States to require that airlines provide advance passenger information to national authorities in order to detect the departure, attempted entry into, or transit through, their territories by civil aircraft, of Committee-designated individuals, and to report and share relevant information with authorities in their respective States of residence or nationality.
The Council also urged the Central African Republic authorities to ensure the removal from circulation of fraudulent, counterfeit, stolen and lost travel documents, as well as invalidated diplomatic passports, and to share relevant information with Member States through the INTERPOL database.
Ambroisine Kpongo (Central African Republic) welcomed the Council’s decision to distinguish sexual violence as a separate listing criterion. Noting the Council’s crucial role in preventing conflict, she said its adoption of the sanctions regime was part of that role, emphasizing that sanctions were not a punishment, but a “necessary evil”. Calls to lift the arms embargo revealed a lack of knowledge concerning the flow of arms into the Central African Republic, she said, emphasizing that the presence of armed groups and those working to derail the stabilization and reconciliation process in her country justified renewing the sanctions.
François Delattre (France) said the resolution renewed the sanctions regime in support of the political process. Bangui was now experiencing peace and the President-elect had the Government’s support, yet the situation remained tenuous, requiring the Council’s unanimous support. Armed groups continued to draw upon the weak justice systems to perpetrate crime, and some aimed to “spoil” the national reconciliation process. The resolution renewed the existing sanctions and increased the visibility of sexual-violence crimes by recognizing them as a separate designation criterion, he noted.
While the resolution sought to strengthen cooperation with airlines in identifying individuals on the Sanctions Committee’s travel-ban list, and requested that the Government enhance passport oversight, it also paved the way for setting the criteria for lifting the arms embargo, he pointed out. Given the flow of weapons into the Central African Republic, that change would need to be carefully considered, he said. Restrictive measures would go hand in hand with the situation on the ground, and the arms embargo could be modified as progress was made in the area of security sector reform.
The meeting began at 10:03 a.m. and ended at 10:13 a.m.
