According to Security Council resolution 1320 (2000) of 15 September 2000, UNMEE has the following mandate:

• Monitor the cessation of hostilities;
• Assist in ensuring the observance of the security commitments agreed by the parties;
• Monitor and verify the redeployment of Ethiopian forces from positions taken after 6 February 1999, which were not under Ethiopian administration before 6 May 1998;
• Monitor the positions of Ethiopian forces once redeployed;
• Simultaneously, monitor the positions of Eritrean forces that are to redeploy in order to remain at a distance of 25 kilometres from positions to which Ethiopian forces shall redeploy;
• Monitor the temporary security zone (TSZ) to assist in ensuring compliance with the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities;
• Chair the Military Coordination Commission (MCC) to be established by the United Nations and OAU in accordance with the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities;
• Coordinate and provide technical assistance for humanitarian mine-action activities in the TSZ and areas adjacent to it; and
• Coordinate the Mission's activities in the TSZ and areas adjacent to it with humanitarian and human rights activities of the United Nations and other organizations in those areas.

The Security Council emphasized that the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities linked the termination of the United Nations peacekeeping mission with the completion of the process of delimitation and demarcation of the Ethiopian-Eritrean border.

By its resolution 1430 (2002) of 14 August 2002, the Security Council adjusted the mandate of UNMEE in order to assist the Boundary Commission in the expeditious and orderly implementation of its Delimitation Decision, to include:

• demining in key areas to suport demarcation, and
• administrative and logistical support for the Field Offices of the Boundary Commission