History

Paris Peace Agreements

The Paris Peace Agreements were a peace treaty that Cambodia and 18 other states signed at Paris on October 23, 1991, to end the Cambodian conflict.[1] They asked the Security Council to set up the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) and prepared the country for elections.[2]

A long table with a pale cloth set with dark document folders, fountain pens, water glasses, carafes and low autumn flowers, before tall windows with light curtains looking onto autumn trees and Paris rooftops
Illustration inspired by a conference table set for a signing in Paris

The agreements were signed at the closing meeting of the Paris Conference on Cambodia and were also called the Paris Agreements.[1] The sources differ on the wording of the full name. Two United Nations peacekeeping pages spell it the Agreements on the Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict,[2][3] while the United Nations page on its advance mission has "a Comprehensive" in place of "the Comprehensive".[1]

Background

From 1975 to 1979 Cambodia lived under a vastly destructive regime led by Pol Pot, and the United Nations puts the number of deaths at more than 1 million.[1] Viet Nam intervened in Cambodia in December 1978, and in 1979 the General Assembly called for all foreign forces to leave.[2] The government in Phnom Penh, the People's Republic of Kampuchea, had the backing of Viet Nam and the Soviet Union.[1] Three factions fought it: FUNCINPEC, led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk (នរោត្តម សីហនុ); the Khmer People's Liberation Front; and the Party of Democratic Kampuchea, known as the Khmer Rouge (ខ្មែរក្រហម).[1] In 1982 the three formed a coalition called the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea.[1]

In 1981 the General Assembly asked the Secretary-General to use his good offices to help reach a settlement.[2] The four Cambodian parties first met face to face in Jakarta in 1988, and in April 1989 Viet Nam announced that its troops would leave Cambodia.[2] The Paris Conference on Cambodia met from July 30 to August 30, 1989, co-chaired by France and Indonesia; it set out a broad path toward peace but reached no full settlement.[1] The two United Nations pages differ on who took part: the four Cambodian parties and 18 other states in one,[1] the parties and 17 countries in the other.[2]

The Security Council's five permanent members began a round of talks in January 1990.[1] The Cambodian parties accepted their Framework document of August 28, 1990, in full as the basis for a settlement.[4] At a meeting in Jakarta on September 10, 1990, the four parties agreed to form a Supreme National Council (SNC) of 12 members,[1] and the Security Council backed the plan in resolution 668 of September 20.[1] In November the five permanent members agreed on a draft text that set out a proposed mandate for a transitional authority.[2] France and Indonesia then led the work of turning the framework into a peace agreement. They presented the draft agreements at a meeting in Paris from December 21 to 23, 1990, and the SNC accepted the draft after the five permanent members sent an explanatory note.[1] The Cambodian parties discussed the draft again in Jakarta in June 1991.[2]

The sources date the 1991 ceasefire differently. In the advance mission page's account, the Secretary-General, France and Indonesia jointly appealed on April 22, 1991, for a pause in the fighting. A voluntary ceasefire followed and was mostly kept for several months.[1] The UNTAC background page dates the ceasefire to May 1, 1991.[2] The treaty itself has its own ceasefire begin when the agreement entered into force.[4]

The sources also differ on Sihanouk's title. The treaty text welcomes his unanimous election in Beijing on July 17, 1991, as President of the Supreme National Council.[4] The advance mission page has the SNC choose him as its chairman when it met in July.[1]

Signing

The second session of the Paris Conference met from October 1 to October 23, 1991.[1] The SNC, with Sihanouk at its head, represented Cambodia.[1] Alongside it sat the Security Council's five permanent members, the six member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Australia, Canada, India, Japan, Laos and Viet Nam. Yugoslavia came as chair of the Non-Aligned Movement, a role Zimbabwe had held before.[1] The treaty was concluded in Paris on October 23, 1991, with the Secretary-General of the United Nations present.[4]

The agreements were made up of a Final Act and three instruments:[1]

  • the main political settlement agreement. Its title reads "of the Cambodia Conflict" on the advance mission page[1] and "on the Cambodia Conflict" in the treaty text;[4]
  • the Agreement concerning the Sovereignty, Independence, Territorial Integrity and Inviolability, Neutrality and National Unity of Cambodia;[1]
  • the Declaration on the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Cambodia.[1]

The settlement agreement took effect on signature, and it stays open for any state to join.[4] Its Chinese, English, French, Khmer and Russian texts carry equal weight, and the originals are held by the governments of France and Indonesia.[4]

Terms

For the length of the transition, the SNC was the sole lawful body and source of authority in Cambodia.[4] It spoke for Cambodia abroad, held Cambodia's seat at the United Nations and handed the United Nations every power it needed to carry out the agreement, with special attention to foreign affairs, defense, finance, public security and information.[4] When the SNC could not reach consensus, Sihanouk as its President could decide what advice to give. If he could not, the decision passed to the Secretary-General's Special Representative, who also judged in every case whether the SNC's advice or acts fit the agreement.[4] The signatures of the SNC members for Cambodia bound every Cambodian party and armed force.[4]

The parties asked the Security Council to set up UNTAC, with civilian and military parts, under a Special Representative named by the Secretary-General.[4] UNTAC was to oversee the ceasefire, the end of foreign military aid and the departure of foreign forces. It was to gather, canton and disarm the parties' armed forces and demobilize 70 percent of them, control the administration, police included, and run free and fair elections.[2] The ceasefire was to come in two phases, and UNTAC was to verify that foreign forces left and did not return.[4] UNTAC was also to foster respect for human rights during the transition.[4]

Voters across Cambodia were to elect a constituent assembly of 120 members by provincial proportional representation, and the electoral process was to take at most nine months once voter registration opened.[4] The assembly was to draft and adopt a new constitution within three months of the vote, and that constitution was to commit Cambodia to liberal democracy based on pluralism.[4] Cambodia pledged to uphold its sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and inviolability, and the other signatories pledged to respect them.[4] The signatories also asked the international community to give economic and financial support for rebuilding Cambodia.[4]

In the United Nations' own words, the agreements gave it "an unprecedented role".[2]

Implementation

The Security Council approved an advance mission, the United Nations Advance Mission in Cambodia, in resolution 717 of October 16, 1991, to help the parties keep the ceasefire, and it began work on November 9, 1991.[1][2] The Council gave its full support to the agreements in resolution 718 of October 31, 1991.[1] On November 27, 1991, a Khmer Rouge delegation arrived in Phnom Penh and had to flee when protests against it turned violent.[1] A mixed military working group set up under the agreements first met with all four parties on December 28.[1]

In resolution 745 of February 28, 1992, the Security Council set up UNTAC for no more than 18 months.[1] It urged every party to keep strictly to the agreements and said elections had to take place by May 1993.[2] UNTAC ran from February 1992 to September 1993.[3] Its deployment began on March 15, 1992, when its head reached Phnom Penh, and at its largest it had more than 21,000 military and civilian staff from over 100 countries.[2] The United Nations refugee agency oversaw the return and resettlement of about 360,000 refugees and displaced people.[2]

Twenty parties ran in the elections of May 1993, and more than 4.2 million people, close to 90 percent of those registered, voted for a Constituent Assembly.[2] That September a new government under two prime ministers took office, and the Constitution was proclaimed.[2] In 1993, under the agreements, the Secretary-General also named a Special Representative for Human Rights.[2]

References 4
  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 United Nations, United Nations Advance Mission in Cambodia (UNAMIC) - Background (undated)
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 United Nations, United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) - Background (Summary) (undated)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 United Nations Department of Public Information, United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) (2003)
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 "The World and Japan" Database, Cambodia Peace Treatments (October 23, 1991)


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This page was last edited on 13 November 2026, at 20:26.