OREANDA-NEWS. The UN Security Council on April 27 unanimously adopted Russian-initiated resolution 1918(2010) on a possible creation of a special court for prosecuting pirates captured off the coast of Somalia.

Russia’s initiative had been prompted by the growing piracy threat, the struggle against which is compounded by the inability of existing mechanisms to prosecute all piracy suspects detained in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates’ confidence in their impunity conduces to increase the number of pirate attacks.

The new resolution for the first time directly calls the attention of the international community to this problem and bears testimony to the intention of states to combat impunity and look for additional mechanisms to enable bringing pirates to justice more effectively.

The Security Council will return to a substantive discussion on the creation of a tribunal for prosecuting piracy in three months after receiving the UN Secretary General’s report on prosecutorial options.