Speaking in New York on 31 October 2025, the UK Chargé d’Affaires to the UN, James Kariuki, set out the United Kingdom’s position ahead of a Security Council vote on the mandate of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia. The statement reaffirmed long‑standing UK support for the 2016 Peace Agreement and credited the Mission with enabling reintegration and reconciliation across conflict‑affected communities.
The UK argued that the Mission’s mandate should keep pace with conditions on the ground and remain anchored in monitoring implementation of the Peace Agreement, with tasks aligned to the drivers of violence. Officials also underlined continued UK backing for transitional justice, including the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, and called for an inclusive approach that respects the knowledge and participation of Indigenous and Afro‑Colombian communities.
Hours later, the Council adopted Resolution 2798 (2025), renewing the Mission for one year to 31 October 2026. The resolution reorients the Mission’s work around three areas: verification of the political, economic and social reintegration of former FARC‑EP members; security guarantees for former combatants, community leaders and affected communities; and comprehensive rural reform. It also discontinues the expansion of the mandate to monitor ceasefires set out in Resolution 2694 (2023).
The Mission subsequently confirmed that verification of transitional justice measures and the Peace Agreement’s ethnic chapter will no longer fall within its remit under the renewed mandate. Those outcomes continue to be delivered through national institutions, notably the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, but will not be verified by the Mission.
Negotiations on the mandate were the most contested since the Mission’s creation. Security Council Report records that the United States pressed to remove tasks related to verifying restorative sentences issued by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and monitoring implementation of the ethnic chapter, while many Council members argued for their retention. The adopted text also uses the term “marginalised communities” in the preambular section rather than explicitly naming Indigenous and Afro‑Colombian communities. The UK led the drafting as penholder.
For practitioners in Colombia, the adjustment concentrates UN verification on delivery of services, security and land reform envisaged in the Agreement’s early chapters. In practice this means sustained scrutiny of reintegration programmes, security guarantees and rural reform initiatives, while transitional justice progresses through national jurisdictions. UN reporting this year highlighted the first restorative sentences issued by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace as a key milestone.
Operationally, Resolution 2798 (2025) requests the Secretary‑General to ensure coordination and efficiencies across the UN system in Colombia, signalling a rebalancing of responsibilities between the Mission and other UN entities. Recent UN reporting has stressed the importance of robust security guarantees for former combatants and communities ahead of the 2026 elections, a focus likely to feature prominently in Mission reporting.
The UK closed by urging Council members to maintain the partnership with the Colombian people and support the text before them. With the mandate now extended, attention shifts to delivery by Colombian institutions against reintegration, security and rural reform commitments, and to sustained political support from Council members and donors.