Iraq-Kuwait: Vote on a Draft Resolution on Missing Persons and Property*
Tomorrow morning (17 September), the Security Council is expected to vote on a draft resolution requesting the Secretary-General to appoint a Senior Representative mandated to support continued cooperation between Iraq and Kuwait on the repatriation or return of Kuwaiti and third-country missing persons and Kuwaiti property. The draft resolution in blue was authored by the UK, the penholder on the Iraq-Kuwait file.
Background
More than three decades after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait which led to the 1990 -1991 Gulf War, many families of missing persons in both countries still do not know the fate of their relatives. In 1991, a US-led coalition drove Iraqi armed forces out of Kuwait, which led to a ceasefire and the creation of the Tripartite Commission under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to ascertain the fate of missing military personnel and civilians. The Commission is chaired by the ICRC and comprises representatives of Iraq, and the 1990-1991 coalition (France, the US, the UK, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait).
On 17 December 1999, the Security Council adopted resolution 1284, which requested the appointment of a “high-level coordinator” to report regularly to the Council “on compliance by Iraq with its obligations regarding the repatriation or return of all Kuwaiti and third country nationals or their remains” and “on the return of all Kuwaiti property, including archives, seized by Iraq”. The High-Level Coordinator reported to the Council until December 2012, when the mandate was not renewed as the Council failed to agree on extending it and its financing. Subsequently, the Council adopted resolution 2107 on 27 June 2013, which transferred the mandate formerly assigned to the High-Level Coordinator to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). The resolution also transferred Iraq’s obligations in this regard from Chapter VII to Chapter VI of the UN Charter. (For more information, see our 26 June 2013 What’s In Blue story.)
The facilitation of progress on Iraq-Kuwait issues has been a priority of UNAMI’s mandate since then. On 31 May 2024, however, the Council adopted resolution 2732, which decided to close the mission by 31 December 2025. UNAMI is presently engaged in drawdown activities, in line with the transition and liquidation plan submitted by the Secretary-General to the Council on 23 December 2024. (For more information, see the Iraq brief in our June 2025 Monthly Forecast.)
In view of UNAMI’s drawdown, resolution 2732 requested the Secretary-General to recommend to the Council by 31 May options for a follow-on mechanism to ensure continued progress “towards the final resolution of outstanding issues between Iraq and Kuwait”, if they are not resolved by the termination of UNAMI’s mandate. In his latest biannual report on the Iraq-Kuwait file, dated 23 May, the Secretary-General presented the following two options for the Council’s consideration:
- the appointment of a senior representative acting on the Secretary-General’s behalf and tasked exclusively with continuing the mandate; or
- the assumption of this mandate by an appropriate UN Secretariat Department and/or senior official of the UN Secretariat.
The report also said that 315 Kuwaitis and third-country nationals remain unaccounted for and that the return of the national archives and other missing Kuwaiti property remain outstanding. In his most recent briefing to the Council on 10 June, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq Mohamed al-Hassan said that there is a need to “redouble” efforts to identify potential burial sites and strengthen cooperation and coordination towards finding the remains of the missing persons, and to expedite the search for missing property. Al-Hassan welcomed the decision to reactivate the Iraq-Kuwait joint committee on missing property and called for continued efforts to rebuild trust and confidence between the two countries. (According to the Secretary-General’s 23 May report, on 27 March UNAMI was informed by Iraq that it had agreed with Kuwait to reactivate the committee, which had not been operational since 2014.)
Draft Resolution
Negotiations on the draft resolution were apparently not contentious, as Council members seemed to broadly share the Secretary-General’s position—as observed in his 23 May report—that a follow-on UN mechanism for the repatriation or return of Kuwaiti and third-country missing persons and Kuwaiti property should be established following UNAMI’s withdrawal.
The UK circulated an initial draft of the resolution in the second half of August, after which one round of consultations took place among Council members. On 12 September, the UK shared a revised draft and put it under silence procedure, which passed yesterday (15 September). The draft resolution was put in blue today (16 September).
While Council members were generally aligned on the text, the penholder’s main challenge was apparently in finding a balance between the diverging positions of Iraq and Kuwait. According to the Secretary-General’s 23 May report, in a 17 February letter to the Secretary-General, Kuwait highlighted the importance of the “pivotal role” that the Council had played in addressing the issue of Kuwaiti missing persons and property in the past and expressed support for the re-appointment of a “High-Level Coordinator”, who would submit periodic reports to the Council on progress towards resolving the issue. On the other hand, the report says that in an 18 March letter to the Secretary-General, Iraq opposed a new mechanism mandated by the Council and proposed instead that the issue be resolved through bilateral consultations under UN auspices, which would see each country establish a “national body tasked with the search for Kuwaiti missing persons and archives”.
This dynamic apparently featured throughout the negotiations on the draft resolution, with Iraq and Kuwait conveying their differing perspectives to Council members. In this regard, Kuwait was keen for the matter to continue to receive substantial Council oversight—emphasising how long this issue has remained unresolved—whereas Iraq pressed for less Council involvement, due to its preference for a bilateral solution to this issue.
In the final draft in blue, the Council requests the Secretary-General to appoint a “Senior Representative whose mandate will solely focus on promoting, supporting and facilitating efforts regarding the repatriation or return of all Kuwaiti and third country nationals or their remains, and the return of Kuwaiti property, including the national archives”. The draft in blue also “[e]ncourages continued efforts [on this matter] with the support of the Senior Representative and the ICRC”, while recognising Iraq’s continued commitment to its obligations within “the framework of the Tripartite Commission and its Technical Subcommittee” under the auspices of the ICRC.
It seems that the UK’s initial draft requested the Secretary-General to inform the Security Council of progress on the file “at appropriate intervals”; however, following comments from the “A3 Plus” member grouping (Algeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Guyana) and Pakistan, the resolution in blue now requests biannual reporting, with the first report due on 31 March 2026. This is consistent with the current reporting frequency on the issue. This change was apparently also in keeping with Kuwait’s preference for having a mandatory reporting cycle to maintain consistent Council attention to the matter. The draft text further requests the Secretary-General to suggest, in his updates, “his assessment of what could be conducive to encouraging further progress” and to make available his good offices to build confidence and trust between the two countries.
A related issue pertained to the duration of the Senior Representative’s mandate, which the draft resolution in blue establishes until 31 December 2030, “or sooner in the event of sufficient progress”. The initial draft mandated the mechanism until 31 December 2028, but the duration was lengthened at the request of the “A3 Plus” members, Pakistan, and Panama. Apparently, Kuwait favoured a mandate lasting at least ten years, whereas Iraq preferred a briefer duration. The final outcome was the compromise achieved by the penholder, who also added language expressing the Council’s intention to review the situation no later than 30 June 2028. Additionally, the draft resolution in blue notes that if the fates of all the missing persons have not been determined by the end of the term, “Iraq commits to continue to address the search […] through all appropriate channels”.
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**Post-script: On 17 September, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2792, authorising the appointment of a Senior Representative with a mandate to promote, support and facilitate efforts to repatriate or return missing Kuwaiti and third country nationals and missing Kuwaiti property.
