S/PV.8905 Security Council

In accordance with rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representative of Somalia to participate in this meeting. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S/2021/950, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I wish to draw the attention of the members of the Council to document S/2021/849, which contains a letter dated 5 October 2021 from the Chair of the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolution 751 (1992), concerning Somalia, 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 13 votes in favour, none against and two abstentions. The draft resolution has been adopted as resolution 2607 (2021). I shall now give the floor to those members of the Council who wish to make statements after the voting.

The Russian Federation abstained in the voting on resolution 2607 (2021), prepared by the United Kingdom, on the extension of the sanctions regime against Somalia. We regret that the Security Council has again failed to reach consensus, although that possibility was well within reach. We cannot agree with the retention of paragraphs on Djibouti and Eritrea in the document. The sanctions against Eritrea were lifted by the Security Council back in 2018. The current state of relations between Djibouti and Asmara poses no threat to international peace and security. The remaining points of contention between those two countries can be settled through bilateral diplomacy. That assessment has appeared in the Secretary-General’s annual report to the Security Council for the past four years. We believe that the aforementioned provisions are outdated and have nothing to do with the Somali sanctions regime. It would regrettable if their preservation in this text were to serve the bilateral aims of individual Council members or to pressure those they dislike. In that context, we also condemn the practice of using or threatening to use illegal unilateral sanctions. We also cannot agree with the wording of paragraph 38, which compels Panels of Experts to promote gender issues in all mandate areas without taking country specificities into account. We believe such actions to be artificial and politicized.

China has always maintained that the Security Council should give due consideration to the latest developments in the country concerned when adopting sanctions. Doing so helps preserve momentum and promote the political process. Somalia has made continuous strides towards national reconstruction and has progressively increased its security capacities. The Government has formulated and updated its transition plan, thereby demonstrating its willingness and determination to independently assume responsibility for security and take ownership of its own destiny. In such circumstances and based upon the request of the Somali Government, the Security Council has should gradually modified arms embargo measures against Somalia in order to help the Government enhance its security capacity and restore State authority. It is regrettable that resolution 2607 (2021) is not adequately adjusted to reflect the aforementioned objectives and fails to effectively address the concerns of the Somali Government. Moreover, the text reflects an expansion through new mandates. That is inconsistent with the general direction of lifting the arms embargo on Somalia. In addition, on multiple occasions Somalia has expressed its concerns regarding the security risks faced by its personnel and institutions as a result of the leakage of financial information. The new text fails to properly address that issue. Consequently, China had no choice but to abstain in the voting. As always, China participated constructively in consultations on the draft text, showing maximum flexibility and commitment to reaching consensus. The Security Council had an opportunity to reach consensus, but that unfortunately did not come to pass. It is also the third consecutive year in which the Council has been unable to reach consensus on a resolution to extend sanctions measures against Somalia. We hope that all members can and will make their best efforts to achieve consensus in future.

I now give the floor to the representative of Somalia.

At the outset, allow me to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your presidency of the Security Council for this month. We take note of resolution 2607 (2021), just now adopted, on the renewal of the sanctions regime imposed on Somalia. For the third year in a row, we once again regret that our important inputs have not been considered to reach consensus. The Federal Government of Somalia again goes on record in seeking to lift the sanctions imposed on Somalia since 1992. The arms embargo in Somalia is one of the longest United Nations sanctions regimes, with the widest mandate. Sanctions are a tool, rather than an end. Sanctions should be directed not against the Federal Government of Somalia, but rather against the terrorist group Al-Shabaab, which is a threat to peace and security in Somalia. The yearly adoption of Somali sanctions resolutions for nearly three decades should not be a monumental event. More important is the effectiveness of the sanctions on the ground. Council members should be guided by compelling evidence — not intuition or emotions — on the substance of this resolution. All evidence points to the fact that in order to achieve success and avoid unintended consequences, the implementation of sanctions should be regularly assessed and modified in order to properly achieve our objective of defeating Al-Shabaab and restricting its financing and illegal flow of arms into Somalia. We therefore stress the importance of identifying clearly defined, realistic and measurable benchmarks, in consultation with the Federal Government of Somalia, to the full lifting of all sanctions measures on Somalia. Subject-matter expertise and evidence-based reporting are the best practices to be used in monitoring United Nations arms embargoes. Nevertheless, there seems to be very little consideration given to such practices today. That negatively impacts the quality of the reports issued, due to the questionable level of expertise and evidence standard. The Federal Government of Somalia has had a few meetings with the Panel of Experts on Somalia under the current mandate. Ensuring the proper safeguarding of sensitive information is indispensable to the trust and cooperation between the Panel of Experts and Member States. Furthermore, we urge for serious consideration to be given to the establishment of a confidentiality and redress mechanism in the Panel of Experts across the Secretariat and the Committee established pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia in order to address serious concerns of leaks and wrongful accusations. With regard to the current location of the Panel of Experts, we strongly recommend that said location become its primary home base in order to increase the Panel’s efficiency, effectiveness and credibility.

There are no more names inscribed on the list of speakers.