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SIERRA LEONE AND THE UNITED NATIONS

AT A GLANCE

Welcome to the Website of the Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone to the United Nations.

Since its admission as the 100th member of the United Nations in 1961, the Organization has been a centre for the elaboration and application of the country’s foreign policy. Sierra Leone’s participation in the United Nations is based on the four pillars of the country’s foreign policy objectives.  These objectives are enunciated in the Constitution of the Republic as follows:

• The promotion and protection of the national interest;
• The promotion of sub-regional, regional and inter-African cooperation and unity;
• The promotion of international cooperation for the consolidation of international peace and security and mutual respect among all nations; and respect for their territorial integrity and independence; and
• Respect for international law and treaty obligations, as well as the seeking of settlement of international disputes by negotiation, arbitration or adjudication.

Its relatively limited resources notwithstanding, and consistent with its Charter obligations, Sierra Leone continues to make an outstanding contribution to the work of the United Nations. For instance, within months of its admission to membership of the Organization it provided a small contingent to ONUC, the UN peacekeeping operations in the then Democratic Republic of the Congo. It served as a non-permanent member of the Security Council in 1970-71.

Sierra Leone has also served as a member of the Economic and Social Council and in some of the Council’s subsidiary or functional bodies, such as the Commission on Human Rights, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and presently the Commission on Science and Technology for Development and the Commission on Sustainable Development. It has chaired such bodies as the International Law Commission, the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), and the Special Committee on Decolonization. Sierra Leone is currently represented in the ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. In recent years, and as a result of the 10-year rebel war that devastated the country, the Sierra Leone delegation has been playing an active role in United Nations efforts relating to the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, conflict diamonds, and international criminal law/transitional justice.

Sierra Leone does not maintain permanent missions in the UN Offices in Geneva and Vienna. For the time being, the contents of this Web Site are limited to highlights of the activities of the Permanent Mission in New York. It also contains links to sources of relevant information about Sierra Leone, its people and Government.

Membership in UN bodies:

• Special Committee on Decolonization

• Special Committee on the Rights of the Palestinian People

• Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations

• Special Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space

• Special Committee on the Charter and of Strengthening of the United Nations

• Commission on Sustainable Development (2007)

• Commission on Science and Technology for Development (2008)

• Governing Council of Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) (2006)

Current Membership of Bureaux of UN bodies:

• Vice-Chair, First Committee (Disarmament & international security) 59th. Session

• Vice-Chair, Open-ended Working Group on the drafting of an international instrument on marking and tracing of small arms and light weapons.

Web Site Developed & Maintained by:  Ryan Sylvester - rs156@nyu.edu

Page Created:  02/27/2005

Page Updated:  05/07/2009