What's In Blue

Posted Thu 16 Feb 2012
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Sudan Sanctions Panel of Experts Renewal

Tomorrow (17 February) the Council is scheduled to adopt a resolution renewing the mandate of the Panel of Experts of the Sudan Sanctions Committee for one year. (The Panel’s current mandate expires on 19 February under resolution 1982.) At press time, the resolution had been put under silence procedure until 3 pm today. It does not seem that there will be fundamental modifications to the Panel’s mandate, although it appears that the resolution brings back the request for a mid-term briefing to the Sanctions Committee. (The resolution renewing the Panel of Experts usually asks for a mid-term report and 90-day briefing but this was excluded in the last resolution, possibly because it renewed the Panel for only nine months.)

The Council met in consultations on the morning of 10 February to discuss the work of the Sudan Sanctions Committee. During the consultations, the Chair of the Committee, Ambassador Néstor Osorio (Colombia), briefed on the Committee’s initial discussions on the final report of the Panel of Experts. Osorio’s presentation was followed by a more general discussion of the situation in Darfur. That afternoon, the Sanctions Committee met to discuss the report’s recommendations.

The Panel’s final report was circulated to Council members in late January, but it has not been released publicly. It seems that some Council members view some of the report’s recommendations as controversial. This may delay its public circulation as Sudan Sanctions Committee works by consensus. (The last final report of the Panel of Experts was circulated by the Panel to the Chair of the Sanctions Committee on 20 September 2010 but was only published on 8 March 2011.)

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