Security Council backs action by UN Mission chief to overrule Kosovo Assembly

The United Nations Security Council today strongly supported the decision by the top UN official in Kosovo to declare without legal effect the enactment of legislation on higher education by the Kosovo Assembly on 3 April.

The Secretary General’s Special Representative in Kosovo, Michael Steiner, made the decision because laws can only enter into force once promulgated by the special representative. The Assembly also failed to respect the outcome of the special process to protect minority rights.

Council members “expressed their concern about this action by the Assembly and called on the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government to focus their work on competencies under their purview, in a way fully consistent with 1244 and the Constitutional Framework,” Security Council President Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, of Mexico, said in a press statement.

“Members of the Council strongly reaffirmed the need for strict observance of resolution 1244 and full respect for the authority of the Special Representative,” the statement said.