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The 1991 Declaration on Fact-finding by the United Nations
Axel Berg1
Full text available: PDF format *
Introduction
The United Nations must rely on timely and accurate knowledge of all relevant facts when excercising its functions in relation to the maintenance of international peace and security. In particular efforts for conflict prevention require an early warning system which is capable of identifying at the earliest possible stage situations that could produce conflict. Besides collecting information through publicly available channels, the deployment of fact-finding missions by the competent United Nations organs has proven to be very useful. Fact-finding activities are also able to indicate to the parties of a conflict the concern of the Organization and thereby contribute to defusing the dispute.
These reflections form the basis for the Declaration on Fact-finding by the United Nations in the Field of the Maintenance of International Peace and Security which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 9 December 1991without a vote.2 The Declaration which had been initiated during the General Assembly of 19883 resulted from the work of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization. The Special Committee is an organ of the General Assembly and its findings were considered during the Assembly's 1989, 1990 and 1991 sessions.4 The Declaration is structured into five major parts that deal with the following topics: common principles for fact-finding by the United Nations, the prerequisites for a decision to send fact-finding missions, the conduct of fact-finding missions, the possible use of other information gathering capabilities, and escape clauses.
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1 Foreign Office, Bonn, Germany. The views expressed are the personal
views of the writer, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Foreign
Office.
3 The original co-sponsors were Belgium, Federal Republic of Germany,
Italy, Japan, New Zealand and Spain. For the reasoning behind the initiative
see the statement by the representative of the Federal Republic of Germany,
Scharioth, on 17 October 1988 in the Sixth Committee, UN Document
A/C.6/43/SR.15 at 14-16.
4 Report of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United
Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization, UN Documents
A/44/33 (1989) 7-32, A/45/33 (1990) 8-34, A/46/33 (1991) 7-11.
© 1990-2004 European Journal of International Law
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