Operation Ostrava: Month 17, Week 2, Day 2.5.

Following today's (15/7/12) announcement by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that a state of war exists in Syria I said I would revise the text of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution 2043(2012) to take account of this change and renew the mandate of the United Nations Supervision Mission In Syria (UNSMIS) for a further. Although the text of the original resolution has yet to appear on my phone I have revised the document and decided it is so long it warrants a post of it's own. Here it is;

The Security Council,

1.Recalling its Resolution 2042 (2012), as well as its Presidential Statements of 3 August 2011, 21 March 2012 and 5 April 2012, and also recalling all relevant resolutions of the General Assembly,

2. Reaffirming its support to the Joint Special Envoy for the United Nations and the League of Arab States, Kofi Annan,.

3. Reaffirming its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria, and to the purposes and principles of the Charter,

4. Condemns any violations of the Geneva Conventions and all relevant international humanitarian law, recalling that those responsible shall be held accountable, and expressing its profound regret at the death of many thousands of people in Syria,

5. Calls on the States bordering Syria to deter Syrians from fleeing across Syria’s borders and commit to stop the flow of military support (both lethal and non-lethal) into Syria.

6. Expressing also its appreciation of the humanitarian assistance that has been provided to Syria by other States,

7. Noting the Syrian government’s commitment on 25 March 2012 to implement the six-point proposal of the Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States, the Council now frees Syria of its obligations under the those proposals

8. Expressing concern over ongoing violence and reports of casualties which have escalated again in recent days, following the Envoy’s assessment of 12 April 2012 that the Syrian government appeared to be observing a cessation of fire and that the Syrian government had started to implement its commitments.

9. Taking note of the assessment by the Secretary-General that a United Nations monitoring mission deployed quickly, with the requisite capacities, and the appropriate conditions of operation would greatly contribute to observing and upholding the commitment of the parties to adhere to the Geneva Conventions and all relevant international humanitarian law

11. Noting the 19 April 2012 Preliminary Understanding (S/2012/250) agreed between the Syrian Arab Republic and the United Nations which provides a basis for a protocol governing the Advance Team and, upon its deployment, the UN supervision mechanism,

12. Having considered the Secretary-General’s letter addressed to the President of Security Council (S/2012/238),

1. Decides to establish for a further period of 90 days a United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) under the command of a Chief Military Observer, comprising an initial deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers as well as an appropriate civilian component as required by the Mission to fulfil its mandate, and decides further that the Mission shall be deployed expeditiously subject to assessment by the Secretary-General of relevant developments on the ground, including the consolidation of the cessation of violence;

2. Decides also that the mandate of the Mission shall be to monitor the commitment of all parties to uphold the Geneva Conventions and all relevant humanitarian law

3. Requests that the Secretary-General and the Syrian government without delay conclude a Status of Mission Agreement (SOMA), taking into consideration General Assembly resolution 58/82 on the scope of legal protection under the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, and notes the agreement between the Syrian government and the United Nations that, pending the conclusion of such an agreement, the model SOFA agreement of 9 October 1990 (A/45/594) shall apply provisionally;

4. Calls upon all parties to ensure the effective operation of UNSMIS by: facilitating the expeditious and unhindered deployment of its personnel and capabilities as required to fulfil its mandate; ensuring its full, unimpeded, and immediate freedom of movement and access as necessary to fulfil its mandate, underlining in this regard the need for all parties and the United Nations to agree rapidly on appropriate air transportation assets for UNSMIS; allowing its unobstructed communications; and allowing it to freely and privately communicate with individuals throughout Syria without retaliation against any person as a result of interaction with UNSMIS;

5. Calls upon the parties to guarantee the safety of UNSMIS personnel without prejudice to its freedom of movement and access.

6. Requests the Secretary-General to report immediately to the Security Council any obstructions to the effective operation of UNSMIS by any party;

7. Calls on all parties to allow immediate, full and unimpeded access of humanitarian personnel to all populations in need of assistance, in accordance with international law and guiding principles of humanitarian assistance and calls upon all parties in Syria to cooperate fully with the United Nations and relevant humanitarian organizations to facilitate the provision of humanitarian assistance;

8. Invites all Member States to consider making appropriate contributions to UNSMIS as requested by the Secretary-General;

9. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Council on the implementation of this resolution within 15 days of its adoption and every 15 days thereafter, and also to submit, as necessary, to the Council proposals for possible adjustments to the UNSMIS mandate;

10. Expresses its intention to assess the implementation of this resolution and to consider further steps as appropriate;

11. Decides to remain seized of the matter.

As you can see the changes are quite simple so the UNSC shouldn't have any problem passing the revised text either tomorrow (16/7/12) or Tuesday (17/7/12) renewing the UNSMIS mandate in plenty of time for the Friday (20/7/12) deadline.

Edited at around 19:00 on 15/7/12 to add:

I should explain. As soon as the UNSC passed resoultion 2043(2012) it became a public document held in the UN's archive and downloadable from here; http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/2043%282012%29 I'd already done this and had a copy of the resolution already on my PC. So transferring it to my phone was simply a case of emailing it from my PC email address to my phone's email address because I find it easier to work on my phone. It's still hasn't turned up though.

Also if you do download the resolution you'll see I've merely delated and re-numbered certain paragraphs while rewriting others. For example I've changed paragraph 5 to call on states bordering Syria to deter Syrians from fleeing across the border. Although this sounds harsh it is to prevent ethnic cleansing which some people have accussed the Syrian government of. Often ethnic cleansing works by one ethnic/religious group attacking a small minority of another ethnic/religious group in order to scare the rest of the ethnic/religious group to flee the country. Under those circumstances it is the responsability of neighbouring countries not to assist in this crime by preventing refugees fleeing into their countries. I'll agree that it's not a pretty thing to do or watch but war crimes rarely are.