SECURITY COUNCIL AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY DISCUSS

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000132 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPKO SOCI UNGA EFIN UN SUBJECT: SECURITY COUNCIL AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY DISCUSS PEACEBUILDING COMMISSION ¶1. SUMMARY: The Security Council and the General Assembly held separate sessions on January 30 and February 6, 2007 respectively to discuss post-conflict peacebuilding. In both venues, speakers urged the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) to focus on work in its country-specific format where it is tasked with providing targeted peacebuilding advice to Sierra Leone and Burundi, the first two countries under PBC consideration. In the Security Council discussion, there was general agreement on the need for the PBC to interact more extensively with the Security Council, providing recommendations and background information as needed on countries and peacekeeping operations falling under the purview of the Security Council. Speakers also urged the PBC to include representatives from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in all PBC meetings. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Timor-Leste, and Haiti were mentioned as possible candidates for future consideration by the PBC. In the subsequent General Assembly discussion, speakers from Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries took a harder line in insisting that the PBC Organizational Committee needed to regularly meet to oversee activity in the country-specific format. END SUMMARY ¶2. For a January 30 Security Council open discussion of the Peacebuilding Commission's first year of activity, Security Council members were joined by the President of the Economic and Social Council (Lithuania),the Chair of the Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission (Angola),and 18 other UN members. Assistant Secretary Carolyn McAskie (Peacebuilding Support Office) made a statement. The IMF and World Bank also spoke. ¶3. Speakers urged the Peacebuilding Commission to focus on work within the country-specific format in order to provide value-added recommendations on peacebuilding programs to countries under consideration by the PBC (currently, Sierra Leone and Burundi). They asked the PBC to further refine the peacebuilding priorities presented by Sierra Leone and Burundi in the two country-specific meetings held so far, and then play a role in mobilizing resources to meet those priorities. Some speakers suggested that the PBC should monitor progress, while coordinating a coherent response across the UN system, donors, and the International Financial Institutions (IFIs). ¶4. Members suggested a variety of improvements to the PBC's current procedures. Slovakia called for the formation of informal, thematically-organized working groups that would incorporate the views of donors working in the field, the host government, and "best practices" from elsewhere as appropriate. Several speakers suggested that the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) should play a role in drafting program papers and technical advice to the country-specific format. Nigeria, Egypt, and Jamaica called for more visits by PBC members to countries under consideration. The UK asked for more structure, including a fixed calendar of meetings, thorough preparation prior to country-specific meetings, "frank dialogue" with the host government, and "honest scrutiny" of the host government's peacebuilding strategy. In order to formally address these issues, a minority of speakers favored re-opening the PBC's Rules of Procedure and holding more frequent Organizational Committee meeting. However, other members, including the United States, urged the PBC to minimize debate on procedural issues and devote more energy to bringing value to peacebuilding activity in countries under consideration. The US interventions in both discussions centered on the need for "pragmatic, action-oriented, and country-specific approaches to the problem of post-conflict peacebuilding." ¶5. Speakers reviewed the status of Security Council interaction with the Peacebuilding Commission. The majority welcomed the Security Council debate and an upcoming General Assembly discussion of the PBC. Speakers called for the PBC to provide background information and advice to the Security Council on countries under consideration, and conduct long-term monitoring of post-conflict situations with a view to informing the Security Council when the PBC found that a country was in danger of relapsing into conflict. However, several NAM-aligned country representatives stated that Security Council deliberations on the PBC were "premature" and called for more frequent meetings of the PBC Organizational Committee to discuss PBC interaction with other UN organs. ¶6. During the day's discussion, three countries were mentioned as possible candidates for consideration by the PBC; the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Timor-Leste, and Haiti. Comment: Of the three, the PBC is likely to take up Timor-Leste this year. The DRC is seen by most PBC members as too large and unsettled for effective PBC consideration, and Haiti is considered to be reluctant to apply for PBC consideration at this point. End Comment. ¶7. The Security Council discussion was followed on February 6 by a similar General Assembly event, largely because of NAM insistence on recognizing the PBC's hybrid status as a General Assembly/Security Council creation through parallel events in the two organs. Most delegates were content to recycle the points made in the Security Council. However, NAM statements on the primacy of the Organizational Committee in the PBC seemed to harden between sessions. ¶8. Comment: The Security Council and General Assembly sessions illustrated how PBC members continue to be uncertain about the exact nature of the PBC's mission. While the discussion produced little clarity, PBC Chairs are picking up the pace in the expectation that country-specific work will resolve some of the uncertainty. Within the country-specific format, Norway and The Netherlands, the chairs for Burundi and Sierra Leone, have introduced a crowded schedule of working group meetings on specific peacebuilding issues. End Comment WOLFF