Thank you very much, Deputy Chair. This is the report of the Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Development with regard to the proclamations made by the President in terms of section 25 of the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Act, Act 33 of 2004.
The 11 September 2001 bombing of the United States of America led to increasingly stringent sanctions. UN Security Council Resolution 1267 of 1999 established the Security Council 1267 Sanctions Committee, which was responsible for updating a list of known terror entities. Their main focus was on the Taliban and Al Qaeda, as well as entities associated with them.
It also established a UN Counter-Terrorism Committee, which deals with the collection of information on terrorist organisations; decides on appropriate measures to take; makes reports to the UN Security Council on the impact of measures to be taken, including humanitarian implications; and identifies, where possible, persons or entities reported to be engaged in the violation of certain UN conventions.
The names of people suspected of financing, supporting, training for and supplying arms for acts of terrorism and related activities are placed on a consolidated list, which is compiled by consensus of the UN Security Council members, and notification is published on the Internet. The member states serving on the 1267 Committee are responsible for freezing the funds and property of the listed entities, enforcing an arms embargo against them and prohibiting travel for members of these entities.
Article 39 of Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, in regard to the UN Security Council, notes that:
The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security.
The UN Security Council, therefore, under Article 41:
... may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.
The UN Security Council, under Article 48, strengthens this decision by requiring that: 1) The action required to carry out the decisions of the Security Council for the maintenance of international peace and security shall be taken by all the Members of the United Nations or by some of them, as the Security Council may determine.
2) Such decisions shall be carried out by the Members of the United Nations directly and through their action in the appropriate international agencies of which they are members.
In South Africa, the President of the Republic of South Africa, as the head of a member state, after the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee has published the list of names and entities associated with terrorism, publishes the names by proclamation in the Government Gazette.
The published proclamation informs the public that the Security Council, under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, has identified specific entities as being:
(a) entities who commit, or attempt to commit, any terrorist and related activity or participate in or facilitate the commission of any terrorist and related activity; or
(b) entities against whom Member States of the United Nations must take the actions specified in the Resolutions of the said Security Council, in order to combat or prevent terrorist and related activities.
The Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Development supports the proclamations and recommends approval by the Council. I thank you. Debate concluded.
Question put: That the Report be adopted.
Order! In accordance with Rule 71, I shall first allow provinces the opportunity to make a declaration of vote, if they so wish. [Interjections.] There is none.
I also remind all hon members here that the new system has failed us. We will therefore revert to the old system. Is that accepted?
HON MEMBERS: Yes.
IN FAVOUR: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, Western Cape.
Report accordingly adopted in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.