Sixth Committee (Legal) — 76th session

Criminal accountability of United Nations officials and experts on mission (Agenda item 79)

Draft resolution A/C.6/76/L.12 was adopted without a vote at the 29th meeting on 18 November 2021. The Committee thus concluded its consideration of agenda item 79.

Documentation

Additional documents from previous sessions:

Summary of work

Background (source: A/76/100)

At its sixty-first session, the General Assembly decided that the agenda item entitled “Comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects”, which had been allocated to the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee), should also be referred to the Sixth Committee for discussion of the report of the Group of Legal Experts on ensuring the accountability of United Nations staff and experts on mission with respect to criminal acts committed in peacekeeping operations (see A/60/980), submitted pursuant to Assembly resolutions 59/300 and 60/263 and decision 60/563 (decision 61/503 A).

At the same session, under the item entitled “Criminal accountability of United Nations officials and experts on mission”, the Assembly decided to establish an Ad Hoc Committee, open to all States Members of the United Nations or members of specialized agencies or of the International Atomic Energy Agency, for the purpose of considering the report of the Group of Legal Experts, in particular its legal aspects (resolution 61/29). The Ad Hoc Committee reported on its work to the Assembly at its sixty-second and sixty-third sessions (A/62/54 and A/63/54).

The Assembly has had the item on its agenda annually since its sixty-second session (resolutions 62/63, 63/119, 64/110, 65/20, 66/93, 67/88, 68/105, 69/114, 70/114, 71/134, 72/112, 73/196, 74/181 and 75/132).

At its seventy-fifth session, the Assembly allocated the item to the Sixth Committee, where statements in the debate were made by 31 delegations (see A/C.6/75/SR.4, 5 and 1719). The Assembly reiterated its decision that the consideration of the report of the Group of Legal Experts, in particular its legal aspects, taking into account the views of Member States and also noting the inputs by the Secretariat, would be continued during its seventy-seventh session in the framework of a working group of the Sixth Committee, and, for that purpose, invited further comments from Member States on that report, including on the question of future action. The Assembly requested the Secretary-General to continue to report on any updates to the policies and procedures of the United Nations system regarding allegations of crimes that may have been committed or crimes that were allegedly committed by United Nations officials or experts on mission. The Assembly also requested the Secretary-General to report to it at its seventy-sixth session on the implementation of the resolution (resolution 75/132).

Consideration at the seventy-sixth session

Archived videos and summaries of plenary meetings

Video   7th meeting (12 October 2021, 3:00pm – 6:00pm) | Summary

Video   8th meeting (13 October 2021, 3:00pm – 6:00pm) | Summary

Video   29th meeting (18 November 2021, 10:00am – 1:00pm) | Summary

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