The Security Council has imposed sanctions on pirates and authorized countries to pursue them in Somalia’s territorial waters. But prosecution of accused pirates has proved difficult, mainly because of legal issues and questions of jurisdiction.
Monday’s resolution calls for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report in two months on ways to carry out prosecutions by specialized Somali courts The resolution says the council “expresses its intention to take further decisions on this matter” after Ban reports.
It also urges governments, the shipping industry, and others affected by piracy to provide financial support for the detention and prosecution of alleged pirates in these courts.
“The worsening situation with piracy off the coast of Somalia requires the international community to adopt qualitatively new measures to combat it,” Russia’s UN
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, whose country sponsored the resolution, told the council after the 15-0 vote.
Churkin said the resolution takes “the first practical step” to establish national anti-piracy courts in Somalia “and a specialized Somali anti-piracy court with international components on the territory of a third state” to fight the impunity that pirates have enjoyed.
France’s UN Ambassador Gerard Araud also called the resolution “a significant and concrete step forward in the fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia.” Both Churkin and Araud noted that the specialized anti-piracy courts were first proposed in January by former French culture minister Jack Lang, the secretary-general’s special adviser on piracy.
In addition to the possibility of new courts, the Security Council backed ongoing efforts by regional states to develop their own anti-piracy courts or chambers. The resolution also urges all countries to criminalize piracy and consider prosecuting not only pirates but also “those who illicitly finance, plan, organize, or unlawfully profit from pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia.” Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991 when warlords overthrew a longtime dictator and then turned on each other, plunging the country into chaos and anarchy.
A transitional government, established in 2004 and backed by about 9,000 African Union troops, now controls about half of the capital city, Mogadishu. The Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabab controls the other half and much of south-central Somalia.
As the rule of law crumbled in Somalia, organized criminal gangs ramped up the lucrative business of boarding ships in the Gulf of Aden or the Indian Ocean — one of the world’s busiest sea lanes — and holding them, their crews and cargos for ransoms. Pirates currently hold about 26 ships and close to 600 crew members.
