14 July 2010 - Up to 10 names currently on a UN sanctions list related to Afghanistan are in the process of being forwarded to the UN Security Council for review, the top UN envoy in the country told the press on Monday.

Staffan de Mistura, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, was speaking at a joint press conference with Government Ministers to launch the Kabul Conference which will be held on 20 July.

The Sanctions list, known as the 1267 list, has 137 names of individuals or entities with alleged links to the Taliban or al-Qaeda. At the Peace Jirga held by the Government in Kabul in early June, the 1,600 participants called in the closing declaration for the removal of names from the list to assist efforts at dialogue to resolve the long-running conflict in the country.

Recent media reports have mentioned figures of up to 50 names being forwarded, but de Mistura clarified that he had information about 10 names. The Government of Afghanistan has also stated to the media that it is not preparing files for 50 names.

The full Security Council visited Afghanistan in mid-June, including the chairman of the 1267 Committee, Austrian Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Harting.

Ambassador Mayr-Harting confirmed to the press during this visit that the Security Council is in the process of conducting a review of all the entries on the list, of all people and all entities linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He stressed that names could be added or taken off the list, and that the Committee “operates the review on a case-by-case basis,” of individuals, “not categories of people or groups of people.”

“The Committee bases itself on the following guiding principles: people who are to be delisted have to convincingly renounce violence; they have to lay down arms; have broken all links with al Qaeda; and fully accepted, in the cases of Taliban, the Afghan Constitution,” Ambassador Mayr-Harting told media in Kabul on 24June.

When de-listing of particular names is requested by the Afghan Government or another Members State, the Security Council committee will evaluate the information provided by the state before it.

“And at the end, of course, this information will be evaluated by each and every of the 15 members of the Security Council. (E)ach of the 15 members has to be convinced by this information, because…the de-listing can only take place if there is consensus amongst the 15 members,” said Ambassador Mayr-Harting.

The list is updated from time to time in order to reflect the actual threat from individuals mentioned in it. “That means that in cases where the need for this preventive action is no longer there, entities or people can be taken off the list. On the other hand where there is a new threat, new entries should be made to the list. It should always be seen in this balance. Names which are no longer necessary can be taken off and entries which are necessary but are not yet on the list should be put on,” he added.

The UN Security Council 1267 Committee was established in October 1999. Due to its complex nature, the current review process of de-listing has been extended to 31 July 2010.