Chapter 7:   DECISIONS AND DOCUMENTS

Section 8:   Notes by the President

 

Notes by the Council President which amend Secretary-General reporting cycles

 

On page 428, the book states that “Exchanges of letters between the Secretary-General and the Council President have on occasion been used to agree extensions of due dates of reports by the Secretary-General.”  The examples given are of a 2010 request from the Secretary-General, and a positive response from the Council President, to extend the due date for a report on sexual violence in armed conflicts (S/2010/416 and 417), and a 2011 request, and positive response, to extend the date for a report on Côte d’Ivoire, in order to allow time for a technical assessment mission to complete its observations (S/2011/295 and /296).

 

In parallel, the book says on page 429 that Notes by the President have “amended reporting deadlines”, and gives as an example the Council’s agreement later in 2011 to an extension for the Secretary-General’s subsequent report on sexual violence in armed conflicts (S/2011/583).

 

All of the above instances related to a one-time extension of a due date. 

 

The Security Council has used Notes by the President not only to extend a single report deadline, but also to establish a new reporting cycle overall.  In his Note S/2013/657, the Council President stated, in connection with the Sudan and South Sudan, that the Council members “agreed to amend the reporting period established in paragraph 6 of resolution 2046 (2012) to one-month intervals”.  The following year, a Note by the President (S/2014/613) indicated that it had been agreed to amend the reporting period for the same report to three-month intervals.  Two years later, a new presidential note (S/2016/1029) amended the cycle for that report to “six-month intervals, beginning with the first report under the new timeline due to the Council by 15 May 2017.”

 

(This update supplements pages 428-429 of the book.)