Report on whether South africa is governed by regional and international convetions on military involvement in other countries.
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NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO: 113 (CW 163E)
PUBLISHED IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO: 8-2013 OF 19 APRIL 2013
MR O DE BEER (COPE-WC) TO ASK THE MINISTER OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COOPERATION:
(1) Whether South Africa is governed by regional and international conventions on military involvement in other countries, if not, why not, if so, what are the (a) SADC, (b) AU and (c) the UN international military (i) conventions, (ii) protocols and (iii) policies on military interference in other countries as a result of special requests to South Africa. “Special requests” is then defined as “requests to South Africa only from a head of state of a troubled country other than through the bodies and structures mentioned above”.
REPLY:
Yes. South Africa is governed by the Constitution, security, defence and foreign policy bilateral agreements and international conventions acceded to in terms of military involvement in other countries. South Africa at present employs the South African National Defence Force in United Nations peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan.
With respect to the DRC, the South African contingent has been deployed as part of the Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies au Congo (“MONUC”), which was established pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution1291 (2000) and Resolution 1341 (2001), in terms of a Memorandum of Understanding between South Africa and the United Nations. Pursuant to the United Nations Security Council’s Resolution 1925 of 2010, the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (“MONUSCO”) has been established to succeed MONUC.
During the SADC Summit held on 8 December 2012 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, a decision was taken to deploy the SADC Standby Force under the auspices of MONUSCO as part of the United Nations Intervention Brigade. The SADC Standby Force will consist of soldiers from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi.
With respect to Sudan, South Africa contributed military resources to the African Union mission in Sudan (“AMIS”) in terms of a Memorandum of Understanding between South Africa and the African Union. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1769 (2007) authorised the United Nations to deploy United Nations support packages to AMIS as part of an AU/UN Hybrid operation in Darfur (“UNAMID”).
Primary responsibility has been assigned by the United Nations Charter to the Security Council for the maintenance of international peace and security and aforementioned resolutions establishing and mandating MONUC and MONUSCO and Resolution 1769 (2007) establishing the AU/UN Hybrid Operation have all been adopted to give expression to this primary responsibility. Pursuant to this primary responsibility, the Security Council determined in Resolution 1291 (2000), renewing the mandate of MONUC and authorising the expansion thereof, that the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo constitutes a threat to international peace and security.
The United Nations’ collective security system created by the Charter authorises the Security Council to determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act or aggression, and to then mandate non-forcible measures and, as a last resort, the use of force to restore international peace and security.
Since the end of the Cold War, the Security Council has in the implementation of its peace and security mandate increasingly focused on enhancing human security and on terminating internal conflicts within states, authorising an unprecedented number of peacekeeping missions like MONUC, MONUSCO and the UNAMID.
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