S/PV.7842 Security Council

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S/2016/1054, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted Uruguay. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2016/959, which contains the text of a letter dated 11 November 2016 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council, and to document S/2016/976, which contains the text of a letter dated 17 November 2016 from the President of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, addressed to the President of the Security Council. The Council is ready to proceed to the vote on the draft resolution before it. I shall put the draft resolution to the vote now.

The draft resolution received 15 votes in favour. The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as resolution 2329 (2016). I shall now give the floor to those members of the Security Council who wish to make statements following the voting.

The Russian delegation has often expressed its concern over the unacceptable delays in the judicial proceedings of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the prolongation of its work beyond the limits set by resolution 1966 (2010). Our opinion of that has not changed. At the same time, we note that the Tribunal’s new leadership has managed to avoid additional delays, for the first time in several years. The adoption today of resolution 2329 (2016) reflects the commitment of the ICTY to the task of finalizing its work by the end of 2017 and contains important provisions ensuring that the current extension of the mandates of the judges and prosecutors will be the last. Those conditions form the basis of our decision to vote in favour of the resolution. I would like to stress that the Council’s appeals to the Tribunal to shorten the ongoing judicial proceedings are as urgent as ever, and we hope that the Tribunal’s leadership will make every effort to that end in order to ensure that the two remaining cases are finalized even before the official deadline.