Implications of Czech membership In the UN Security Council

The former Czechoslovakia submitted its candidature as early as 1984 and proceeded to confirm it annually. In 1992, it was decided to initiate a campaign for the election of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic. Notes announcing that the Czech Republic, by agreement with the Slovak Republic, assumed the candidature were dispatched already before the dissolution of ths federation in December 1992. Within the East European regional group, another candidate for the seat of non-permanent member of the Security Council for the years 1994-1995 was Belarus. At the 48th session of the UN General Assembly in autumn 1993, the Czech Republic acquired the two-third majority of votes necessary for election.

The UN Security Council is the only international organ authorized to adopt decisions legally binding for other members of the international community. To become a member of the Security Council means to undertake a share of responsibility for the international development, including the participation in the diplomatic settlement of conflicts. Consequently, our country has the opportunity to participate through its delegation in the political settlement of the issues on the agenda and to promote our national interests. The Czech Republic presents itself as a democratic state promoting human rights and other basic standards of international coexistence.

History of Czech membership In the UN Security Council

(January-June 1994)

In January 1994, the presidency fell on the Czech Republic. The Czech representative in the UN, Mr. Karel Kovanda, became President of the Security Council.

In January-June 1994, the Security Council held 67 formal sessions, adopted 38 resolutions and 29 presidential statements. Nevertheless, the focus was on closed informal consultations which were convened almost a hundred times. The Security Council documents were considered and discussed above all during such informal consultations.

The Czech delegation takes an active part in the discussion of almost all issues. It participated in the preparation and "fine-tuning" of a number of resolutions. The remarkable activity of Ambassador Kovanda at the Security Council sessions has aroused exceptional interest from other delegations to the UN as well as of the mass media. In the course of the first six months, the Czech delegation took the floor almost twenty times. Especially our positions on Bosnia, Georgia and, during the last month, Rwanda, have been followed closely.

Apart from the formal sessions and informal consultations, the Security Council members attend also other forums, not so visible but nevertheless very demanding from the point of view of time and agenda. The most important ones are the so-called Sanction Committees, established on the basis of binding Security Council resolutions to monitor sanctions imposed on a certain state and to grant exceptions. Each Security Council member is also a member of all sanction committees. The Committees are chaired by representatives of non-permanent members and personel. Ambassador Kovanda chairs the Sanction Committee on Libya. Other committees are in charge of Iraq, Somalia, former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Haiti. The Sanction Committee on the Republic of South Africa has already been abolished.

Participation of the Czech Republic In United Nations peace-keeping missions

1) UNPROFOR: ACR military contingent in the territory of the former Yugoslavia (Croatia, the territory of the so-called Republic of Serbian Krajina), currently consists of 989 members of the ACR:
- a UNPROFOR battalion (924 persons),
- a group of UNPROFO officers (15 persons, including the commander of Sector-South, Brig.Gen. R. Kotil),
- a group of military police (Sector-South, 8 ACR members, including the commander of the military police in Zagreb),
- a group of economic logistics tor Sector-South (6 ACR members),
- stationary switching node (15 ACR members),
- independent surgical ward (21 persons).

2) UNGCI: (Iraq) 21 observers and 11 policemen.
3) UNOMIL: (Liberia) 15 military observers.
4) UNOMOZ: (Mozambique) 19 military observers.
5) UNOMIQ: plan to send 5 military observers to Georgia.