| UN Security Council Resolution 1558 | |
|---|---|
 Somalia | |
| Date | 17 August 2004 |
| Meeting no. | 5,022 |
| Code | S/RES/1558 (Document) |
| Subject | The situation in Somalia |
Voting summary | 15 voted for None voted against None abstained |
| Result | Adopted |
| Security Council composition | |
Permanent members | |
Non-permanent members | |
United Nations Security Council resolution 1558, adopted unanimously on 17 August 2004, after recalling previous resolutions on the situation in Somalia, particularly resolutions 733 (1992) and 1519 (2003), the Council re-established a group to monitor the arms embargo against the country for a further six months. [1]
A United Nations Security Council resolution is a UN resolution adopted by the fifteen members of the Security Council; the UN body charged with "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security".
Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Federaalka Soomaaliya; Arabic: جمهورية الصومال الفيدرالية, translit. Jumhūrīyah aṣ-Ṣūmāl al-Fīdirālīyah, is a country with its territory located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti and Somaliland to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Guardafui Channel and Somali Sea to the east, and Kenya to the southwest. It is separated from Socotra by the Guardafui Channel in the northeast and from the Seychelles by the Somali Sea. Somalia has the longest coastline on Africa's mainland, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Climatically, hot conditions prevail year-round, with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall.
United Nations Security Council resolution 733, adopted unanimously on 23 January 1992, after expressing its alarm at the situation in Somalia regarding the heavy loss of life, destruction to property and threat to regional stability, the Council, acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, decided to place a "general and complete" arms embargo on the country for the purposes of establishing peace and stability. The situation was brought to the attention of the Security Council by the Somali government.
Contents
The Security Council offered its support of the Somali reconciliation process, including the ongoing Somali National Reconciliation Conference. It condemned the illegal flow of weapons into and through Somalia in violation of the arms embargo, calling for improvements to be made to the monitoring of the embargo. [2] Acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Council stressed that all countries should comply with the embargo. The Secretary-General Kofi Annan was asked to re-establish a monitoring group to monitor the implementation of the arms embargo against Somalia, update lists on those violating the sanctions, to co-operate with a Committee established in Resolution 751 (1992) and make recommendations.
Arms trafficking, also known as gunrunning, is the trafficking of contraband weapons and ammunition. What constitutes legal trade in firearms varies widely, depending on local and national laws.
Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter sets out the UN Security Council's powers to maintain peace. It allows the Council to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and to take military and nonmilitary action to "restore international peace and security".
Kofi Atta Annan was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.
