Security Council Grants Year-long Mandate Extension for United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Central African Republic

Jan 28, 2014 | United Nations
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The Security Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA) for one year today, deciding also to expand sanctions imposed on individuals to include a travel ban and an assets freeze, and authorizing the deployment of a European Union intervention force in the country.

Unanimously adopting resolution 2134 (2014), the Council also reinforced and updated BINUCA’s mandate to assist in the transitional political process, and to help with conflict prevention, humanitarian assistance, extension of State authority, stabilization of the security situation, and the promotion and protection of human rights.

Also by the text adopted today, the Council authorized the European Union to deploy an operation in the Central African Republic, as referenced in a letter dated 21 January from the bloc’s High Representative (document S/2014/45).  It also authorized that operation to take all necessary measures, within the limits of its capacities and areas of deployment from its initial deployment and for a period of six months from the declaration of its full operational capacity.

Further the text, the Council decided that, for an initial period of one year, all Member States would take the necessary measures to prevent the entry into or transit through their territories of individuals designated by the relevant Sanctions Committee, provided that nothing would oblige a State to refuse its own nationals entry into its territory.  The Council also decided that all Member States would freeze without delay all funds, other financial assets and economic resources within their territories that were either owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by individuals or entities designated by the Sanctions Committee, by others acting on their behalf or by entities owned or controlled by them.

The Russian Federation’s representative, speaking after the vote, said that, given the urgent need to scale up support from the European Union and the international community, it was to be hoped that the European Union force would contribute effectively to the Central African Republic’s stability.  He urged the European Union, however, to agree with the African Union peacekeeping operation on operational aspects, such as the division of labour, before its force began operating.

Thomas Mayr-Harting, Head of the European Union Delegation, said that the swift deployment of its force, in support of the African-led International Support Mission to the Central African Republic (MISCA) and France’s operation, would assure the conditions necessary for a return to stability.  One of the European Union mission’s goals was to help create security conditions conducive to meeting humanitarian needs, he said.  Recalling that the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs had mobilized $500 million for the Central African Republic, he said the European Union had made a bilateral contribution of €50 million to finance MISCA.  The European Union would study, in coordination with international financial institutions, all measures necessary for the country’s reconstruction and the modality of engagement on the rule of law and security sector reform, he added.