United Nations Commissioner for Namibia

United Nations Commissioner for Namibia
Governor-in-waiting Bernt Carlsson killed on the eve of taking charge of Namibia
Abbreviation	UNCN
Formation	27 October 1966
Extinction	21 December 1988
Chief Administrative Officer (Governor-in-waiting) of the UN Trust Territory Namibia, illegally occupied by apartheid South Africa (1971-1990)

The acronym UNCN stands for both the post of United Nations Commissioner for Namibia (left vacant after the seventh and last office holder Bernt Carlsson was murdered on 21 December 1988) and the United Nations Council for Namibia, which the UN established in 1967 as occupied Namibia's only lawful Administering Authority.

The UN had terminated South Africa's mandate over Namibia in 1966. In 1971 the International Court of Justice ruled that the continued presence of South Africa in Namibia was illegal and as a result South Africa was under obligation to withdraw its administration from Namibia immediately and thus put an end to its occupation of the Territory. But South Africa refused to withdraw, and the liberation movement SWAPO had to continue its decades-long struggle for independence.

Following the formal signing ceremony of the Namibian independence agreement at United Nations headquarters on 22 December 1988 (which Governor-in-waiting Bernt Carlsson was prevented from attending), Namibia finally achieved independence on 21 March 1990. The other UNCN (UN Council for Namibia) was dissolved six months later.

Background

Namibia — formerly known as South-West Africa — was the only one of the seven African Territories once held under the League of Nations Mandate System that was not placed under the Trusteeship System. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) recommended in 1946 that South Africa do so, but South Africa refused. Instead, South Africa informed the United Nations in 1949 that it would no longer transmit information on the Territory, on the grounds that the Mandate had lapsed with the demise of the League. In 1950, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held that South Africa continued to have international obligations towards the Territory, and that the United Nations should exercise the supervisory functions of the League of Nations in the administration of the Territory. South Africa refused to accept the Court's opinion, and continued to oppose any form of United Nations supervision.

In 1966, the UN General Assembly declared that South Africa had failed to fulfil its obligations under the Mandate. It terminated that Mandate, and placed the territory under the direct responsibility of the United Nations. In 1967, the Assembly established the United Nations Council for South West Africa to administer the Territory until independence. It thus became the only Territory which the United Nations, rather than a Member State, assumed direct responsibility. In 1968, the Council was renamed the United Nations Council for Namibia, when the Assembly proclaimed that, in accordance with the wishes of its people, the Territory would be thenceforth known as Namibia. Later that year, in the face of South Africa's refusal to accept UNGA's decision and cooperate with the UN Council for Namibia, the Assembly recommended that the Security Council take measures to enable UNCN to carry out its mandate.

Seven Governors-in-waiting

UN Commissioner for Namibia (UNCN) was a post created by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in 1966 to assert the UN's direct responsibility for South West Africa (Namibia) which was then under illegal occupation by apartheid South Africa. There were seven occupants of the post of UN Commissioner for Namibia. South Africa refused to recognise the authority of any of the Governors-in-waiting.

Commissioner	Nationality	Term of office
Anton Vratuša	Yugoslavia	27 October 1966 — 13 June 1967
Konstantinos Stavropoulos	Greece	13 June 1967 — 1 December 1969 (acting)
Agha Abdul Hamid	Pakistan	1 December 1969 — 18 December 1973 (acting)
Seán MacBride	Ireland	18 December 1973 — 1 January 1977
Martti Ahtisaari	Finland	1 January 1977 — 1 April 1982
Brajesh Mishra	India	1 April 1982 — 1 July 1987
Bernt Carlsson	Sweden	1 July 1987 — 21 December 1988

 

An Office Holder on Wikispooks

Name	From	To
Martti Ahtisaari	1 January 1977	1 April 1982

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Lockerbie Bombing and my Reinstatement in HM Diplomatic Service	letter	29 January 1997	Patrick Haseldine	Former diplomat Patrick Haseldine writes to former Prime Minister James Callaghan
Document:Pan Am Flight 103: It was the Uranium	article	6 January 2014	Patrick Haseldine	Following Bernt Carlsson's untimely death in the Lockerbie bombing, the UN Council for Namibia inexplicably dropped the case against Britain's URENCO for illegally importing yellowcake from the Rössing Uranium Mine in Namibia.

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