Memorandum submitted by Saferworld
The UN and Conflict Prevention
Saferworld is an independent non-governmental organisation
(NGO) that is working internationally to prevent armed violence,
increase human security and create conditions for sustainable
development. We have programmes in Africa, Europe and South Asia
where we work with international agencies, governments and international
and local NGOs. Conflict prevention and arms export controls form
an integral part of our work.
Introduction
This link between security and development was
recognised in a number of reports published in the run-up to the
UN Summit. The UN High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and
Changes, In Larger Freedom and the Millennium Project Report all
recognised that development cannot take place without first ensuring
peaceful and stable conditions: "we will not enjoy development
without security".[90]
The High Level Panel Report in particular, identified the UN as
a key actor in conflict prevention to create conditions to allow
for international peace, security and development to foster.
The Millennium Review Summit in New York presented
world leaders with a key opportunity to take steps to improve
the international community's ability to prevent and resolve violent
conflict, and so improve the lives of millions of people living
in poverty - and also to build on the momentum created on the
G8 Summit and Make Poverty History campaign.
Agreement at the Summit to create a Peacebuilding
Commission and recognise the Responsibility to Protect are welcome.
However, opportunities were also missed, particularly in the areas
of improving the Peacebuilding Commission with a preventive mandate
that would allow for more effective protection of the world's
poor.
In addition, the complete failure by world leaders
to include any language on disarmament, of both conventional weapons
and small arms and light weapons proved a loss that will hinder
the UN's responsibility to secure stability and development for
all. Without effective security measures to protect populations
that aim to prevent conflict, the poor will continue to suffer
the plight of insecurity and under-development.
The UK Government has already declared its commitment
to an Arms Trade Treaty,[91]
to a preventive role for the Peacebuilding Commission and affirmed
its support for the "Responsibility to Protect".
[92]
The Government should now share with Parliament
and civil society its strategy for
ensuring the effective implementation of the gains
made at the Summit. It must also explain how it plans to work
towards the securing of international cooperation on its pledges
that failed to reach agreement at the Summit.
Saferworld urges the UK Government to :
- Continue to work actively to promote effective
international arms transfer and brokering controls, including
through the agreement of an international Arms Trade Treaty.
- Work with UN partners to ensure the Peacebuilding
Commission is mandated, structured and resourced to play an effective
role in post-conflict peacebuilding and development, and to promote
the development of a conflict prevention mandate for the Peacebuilding
Commission.
- Continue to work to secure agreement amongst
Security Council Members to relinquish the right of the veto in
cases of genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity;
and works with the UN, EU, G8, the African Union and other partners
to ensure that the international system is equipped to enforce
the responsibility to protect.
Disarmament and Non-Proliferation
Arms continue to be exported and brokered to developing
countries, exacerbating conflicts and undermining human rights
and development. The UN's Security Council brings together some
of the world's largest arms exporting and supplier nations.
Draft outcome documents in the run up to the Summit
committed on Member States to "adopt and implement
an international instrument to regulate the marking and tracing,
illicit brokering, trade and transfer of small arms and light
weapons.[93] However,
following changes by the United States, issues of disarmament,
including this commitment, were entirely omitted from the final
document - a situation described as "a real disgrace"
by Kofi Annan.
A binding international agreement on arms transfers
and brokering is a fundamental tool in conflict prevention. The
failure to agree effective international controls to curb the
proliferation and misuse of weapons will only continue to hinder
development in poor countries - a fact recognised by the UK Government
in its pursuit of an ATT and other initiatives.
Since the UN Summit, the European Union has declared
its support for an "international treaty to establish
common standards for the global trade in conventional arms".
In its declaration, the EU "agreed that the United Nations
was the only forum that could deliver a truly universal instrument
and called for the start
of a formal process at the United Nations at the earliest opportunity".
[94] The EU joins 30
countries worldwide that support this initiative.
The UK Government has shown admirable leadership
in the area of international arms transfer control and has committed
to start negotiations on an ATT "no later than 2006".[95]
It is incumbent upon the Government to stay committed to the ATT
and to develop effective strategies to gain international agreement
to it.
- The Government must continue to work actively
to promote effective international arms transfer and brokering
controls, including through the agreement of an international
Arms Trade Treaty.
The Peacebuilding Commission - a preventive mandate
The agreement in principle reached at the Summit
for the establishment of a Peacebuilding Commission is a welcome
addition to the UN structures. Half of all countries that emerge
from civil war regress back into violent conflict within 5 years
and the current international system has no body to coordinate
efforts to assist countries emerging from conflicts.
The Summit agreed to set up the Peacebuilding
Commission before the end of the year. In finalising the mandate
of the Commission, setting up its organisational structures, and
putting in place its Support Office and Peacebuilding Fund (to
provide vital early financing for reconstruction), the UN must
ensure that it has the full powers and resources necessary to
make a real impact to the needs of post-conflict countries. Those
responsible for its construction must ensure that it is an effective
body, able to work efficiently to build on years of international
experience of post-conflict peacebuilding and able to draw in
all the relevant actors to ensure coordination and promote sensible
action. It should be ensure that there are strong linkages between
short-term interventions in the immediate post-conflict period
and long-term development. The experience of the Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) has demonstrated
how difficult coordination can be - the Peacebuilding Commission
needs to be equipped to avoid similar problems.
At the same time, without a greater mandate to
prevent the outbreak of conflicts in the first place, the Peacebuilding
Commission will have limited ability to promote collective security
and development.
In the run up to the Summit, the UN's High Level
Panel's Report recommended
that the Commission concentrate efforts "in
a coherent and effective way throughout a whole continuum that
runs from early warning through preventive action to post-conflict
peacebuilding". Saferworld believes the Peacebuilding
Commission should work actively with states, not only at the point
of crisis, but have constructive engagement at an early stage
as risks are identified. The Commission's core functions should
include: "the identification of countries which are under
stress and risk sliding towards state collapse.. (and) .. to organise,
in partnership with the national government, proactive assistance
in preventing that process from developing further".[96]
These core functions would allow the UN to fulfil its responsibility
to ensure freedom from fear for all - a concept enshrined in the
In larger Freedom Report - allowing it to act responsibly and
preventively as and when states are identified as being at risk
of failing to protect their population.
To ensure that stability and development can prosper
and to encourage a comprehensive strategy in addressing global
insecurity, the UK Government should:
- Work with UN partners to ensure the Peacebuilding
Commission is mandated, structured and resourced to play an effective
role in post-conflict peacebuilding and development, and to promote
the development of a conflict prevention mandate for the Peacebuilding
Commission.
Responsibility to Protect - Security Council Member
Veto
A significant breakthrough at the Summit was the
international community's new commitment to protect populations
from genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing. The UN now has
a humanitarian responsibility to defend populations from atrocities
if national authorities are unable or unwilling to do so and any
attempt to block assistance to respond to crises is irresponsible.
However, text urging members of the Security Council to not to
exercise the veto when making decisions on intervention in such
cases of crimes against humanity was dropped.
If the UN is to prevent atrocities such as those
observed in Rwanda and Bosnia which lead to the loss of thousands
of lives, it is imperative that such decisions on intervention
are not impeded by the veto.
The responsibility to protect will be meaningless
if it cannot be implemented. The Responsibility to Protect includes
the responsibility to prevent, to react and to rebuild - attention
should be given to all aspects. The roles and responsibilities
of the different parts of the international system in upholding
the responsibility to protect - particularly between the UN and
regional and sub-regional groups - must to be clarified to improve
the efficiency of responses. As the Millennium Summit document
recognises, the capacity of those parts of the international system,
such as the African Union and African sub-regional organisations,
that play a leading role but have limited resources needs to be
improved in a sustainable and comprehensive manner.
To allow the UN to fulfil its responsibility to ensure freedom
from fear for all and allow development to progress, the UK Government
should:
- Continue to work to secure agreement amongst
Security Council Members to relinquish the right of the veto in
cases of genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity;
and works with the UN, EU, G8, the African Union and other partners
to ensure that the international system is equipped to enforce
the responsibility to protect.
90 In
Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights
for All, March 2005. (the two other reports mentioned are:
Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium
Development Goals, 2005; A More Secure World: our Shared
Responsibility, Report of the United Nations Secretary General
High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, December 2004).
Back
91 Jack Straw
speech to Institute of Engineers, March 2005 Back
92 Our Common
Interest: Report of the Commission for Africa,
March 2005 Back
93 Revised draft
outcome document of the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General
Assembly of September 2005 - submitted by the President of the
General Assembly, 5 August 2005 Back
94 2678th
General Affairs Council Meeting, Luxembourg, 3 October 2005 Back
95 Our Common
Interest: Report of the Commission for Africa,
March 2005 Back
96 A More
Secure World: our Shared Responsibility, Report of the United
Nations Secretary General High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges
and Change, December 2004.
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