APRIL 16 THEMATIC DEBATE: DRAFT UNSCR AND

UNCLAS STATE 038598 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: UNSC PREL SUBJECT: APRIL 16 THEMATIC DEBATE: DRAFT UNSCR AND DEMARCHE ON REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS DEBATE ¶1. Action request: USUN is instructed to demarche the Secretariat at a senior level to clarify its views on SIPDIS several of the SYG's recommendations in the March 24, 2008 report on the relationship between the UN and regional organizations and the January 14 report on conflict prevention in Africa. USUN may draw from the guidance in paragraph 3 and 4 when meeting with the Secretariat. USUN is also instructed to seek the edits in paragraph 6 on the draft UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) on Regional Organizations (complete text in paragraph 7) during its experts meeting on the issue on April 11. USUN should report back to the Department immediately following the conclusion of the experts meeting and their meeting with the Secretariat to report meeting results. SIPDIS ¶2. Action request continued: P5 posts are asked to demarche host governments on USG thoughts regarding the UNSCR on Regional Organizations and the accompanying open debate on the Role of the UN in Strengthening Regional Organizations hosted by South African President Thabo Mbeki. Posts should draw from talking points in paragraph 5 when delivering demarche. Post should report any substantive reactions from host governments by Tuesday, April 15 at 12pm EDT. ¶3. The Department has several concerns with the SYG's January 14 and March 24 reports. While the SYG made many good recommendations that can, and in many cases are already, being carried out by the UN within existing resources, other portions would seem to have significant budgetary implications. In particular, the Department would like further clarification on the SYG's recommendation in paragraph seventy-six of the March 24 report to set up a AU-UN panel consisting of distinguished persons to consider in-depth the modalities of how to support, including financing, peacekeeping funding, equipment and logistics, and to make concrete recommendations. ¶4. Questions for the Secretariat: -- If the Council decides to endorse the idea of such a panel how will its terms of reference and membership be developed? Will the SYG seek recommendations from the Council on who should be on the panel and on its terms of reference? Will the SYG inform the Council of his potential candidates before announcing them? -- How does the SYG envision the composition of the panel? How many experts will be on this panel? Will they have experience in peacekeeping operations? Will they have experience in financial management and transparency issues? Will the interests of major financial contributors to UN and AU peacekeeping operations be represented? -- Will the panel examine only the current funding problems facing AU peacekeeping missions or will it examine the lack of military, technical, and administrative capacities by the AU? Will it examine the AU's capacity to transparently account for any funding it receives? Will it examine past AU-UN cooperation in peacekeeping and include a report on lessons learned from these missions? -- Is the SYG worried about the precedent of establishing only a AU-UN panel? Why not a UN-Regional Organization panel? It seems to us NATO, OAS, EU, OSCE, and ASEAN could all make good arguments on why they need greater UN cooperation as well. -- Has the SYG considered the possibility that the panel may recommend the UN fund AU peacekeeping missions through assessed contributions as some have advocated? If so, what would be the SYG's position on this? Would the SYG worry about the precedent this could set? Is he worried funding these missions through UN funds would place an increased burden on the UN budget? Is he worried that some member states may refuse to pay their assessed contributions to fund AU missions that lack sufficient UNSC oversight and accountability? -- The SYG made many recommendations in his January 14 and March 24 report, many of them we fully support and believe can be done within existing resources. However, other recommendations would seem to have large budget implications, such as in para 64(f) in the Jan. 14 report calling on the strengthening of DPA, through the expansion of regional field presence in Africa, and para 78(a) of the March 24 report that calls for opening a regional office for Central Africa and the Great Lakes region? Did the Secretariat do any cost estimations when formulating the recommendations? ¶5. Begin talking points for P5 posts on USG thoughts for a UNSCR on Regional Organizations and the April 17 open debate of the same theme: -- The United States sees the April 16 open debate hosted by South African President Thabo Mbeki as an excellent opportunity to raise several African issues, as well as an opportunity to discuss how the UN and Regional Organizations can forge a stronger relationship. -- We want to emphasize that the U.S. is a strong supporter of peacekeeping operations by regional organizations, particularly the AU. A South African draft resolution proposes a UN-AU panel to explore "start-up financing" and other issues. We want to ensure that the resolution and the debate at large does not focus solely on funding problems facing AU missions, but also draws attention to AU and AU member responsibilities, such as improving transparency, accountability, and mission management. We seek instead a "lessons learned" study that identifies past obstacles and solutions, including funding management, the AU's military and police shortfalls, and other issues that affect its capacity to conduct peacekeeping and effectively utilize international contributions, funding issues being just one of these concerns. We feel this panel should be made up of not just UN and AU officials, but also representatives from other regional organizations, the donor community, and experts in peacekeeping. -- The debate and resolution can welcome the exploration of ways to address the financing challenges faced by peacekeepers, but we want to avoid endorsing any process that would explicitly focus on UN assessed dues. -- The open debate on April 16 and the joint UN Security Council-AU Peace and Security Council meeting on April 17 offer unique venues for strong statements from the world about the troublesome events occurring in Zimbabwe. This is a great opportunity to begin developing better UN-AU collaboration in conflict prevention. This message would be especially effective if the P5 and African representatives could agree to a joint statement or document expressing concern about the crisis and calling for a peaceful resolution that reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people. -- The United States believes this venue would also be an excellent opportunity to press for accelerated planning for a UN mission in Somalia, including presentation of creative approaches on the location and size of the force, and approaches such as a phased transition from AMISOM to a UN force in parallel with UN authorization for countries with maritime assets to address piracy issues. -- Finally, we would hope you could join us in using this opportunity to maintain pressure for Darfur peacekeeping deployment and Darfur political negotiations, in particular the appointment of a chief negotiator. ¶6. USUN should seek the following edits to the current draft UNSCR on regional organizations in its April 11 experts meeting. Begin edits: -- PP4: USUN should seek to add the phrase, "stressing the utility of" after "prevention of armed conflicts, and" and delete "to" in front of developing. We note "and its sub-regional organizations" has been bracketed. The department is ambivalent to its retention or deletion, but notes the text should remain consist throughout. We note "welcoming the Secretary-General's...is being undertaken" is bracketed. The Department supports its deletion, but would also be satisfied with replacing "welcoming" with "noting." -- PP6: USUN should attempt to add "it in" after "the African Union in order to assist." -- PP6bis: USUN should push for the addition of a PP6bis that would read, "Stressing the importance of further strengthening cooperation with the African Union in administrative capacities, especially in financial accountability and transparency in peacekeeping operations,". -- PP7: We note the entire text has been bracketed. We are indifferent to its retention or deletion. -- PP9: USUN should push to replace "Taking note" with "Recognizing that there are many"; add "to be learned" after "lessons"; change "learnt" to learned"; and replace "practical" with "previous". -- PP10: USUN should replace "predictable, sustainable, and flexible" with "financial." -- PP10bis: USUN should push for the addition of PP10bis that would read, "Recognizing that another major constraint facing some regional organizations, in particular the African Union, in effectively carrying out the mandates of maintaining regional peace and security is the need to further develop relevant multidimensional peacekeeping planning, logistical, technical and administrative capacities," -- PP12bis: USUN should push for the addition of PP12bis that would read, "Acknowledging that regional organizations have the primary role in securing human, financial, logistical and other resources for their organizations, including through obtaining contributions by their members and soliciting contributions from the donor community to fund their operations," -- OP2: USUN should push for the deletion of "and further encourages" after "Welcomes". USUN should push to add, " as well as building multidimensional peacekeeping planning, logistics, operational, and administrative capacity to ensure greater effectiveness, financial accountability, and transparency in peacekeeping operations;" after "the Panel of the Wise." -- OP2bis: The Department supports France's addition of OP2bis. -- OP3: The Department notes "and structured" has been bracketed in OP3. We support its deletion. -- OP4: The Department notes the addition of "and promoting transparency and fairness of electoral processes" to OP4 and supports its addition. -- OP4bis: The Department notes the addition of OP4bis that reads, "Welcomes regional dialogue and the promotion of shared norms as well as common regional approaches to the settlement of disputes and other issues relating to peace and security;". We are indifferent to its retention or deletion. -- OP4ter: The Department notes the addition of OP4ter that reads, "Encourages regional and sub regional organizations to strengthen and increase cooperation among them, including to enhance their respective capacity, in the maintenance of international peace and security, and underlines the importance of the United Nations political support and technical expertise in this regard;". We are supportive of the text. -- OP9: The Department notes the change in OP9 from "Affirms its determination to enhance closer cooperation" to "Encourages closer cooperation" and supports this change. -- OP10bis: The Department notes the addition of OP10bis that reads, "Recognizes the increasingly valuable role that regional organizations and other intergovernmental institutions play in the protection of civilians;". We support its addition. --OP11bis: USUN should push for the addition of OP11bis that reads, "Calls on the Secretariat in coordination with the AU to develop a list of needed capacities and recommendations on ways the AU can further develop the necessary multidimensional peacekeeping, technical, logistical, and administrative capabilities, including in planning, financial accountability, and transparent governance,". -- OP11ter: USUN should push for the addition of OP11ter that reads, "Calls on the AU to increase its efforts to recruit peacekeepers from its members and to solicit donations from the donor community for its mission in Somalia,". -- OP12: The Department notes the current iteration of OP12 is in brackets. The Department cannot support the text as currently formulated. USUN should suggest instead it be replaced with the following text, "Requests the Secretary-General to convene within three months a panel SIPDIS consisting of representatives from the United Nations, the African Union, Regional Organizations, interested governments and donors, and peacekeeping experts to consider in depth the effectiveness of past and current African Union peacekeeping efforts, to highlight lessons learned from these efforts, to examine current deficits in administrative, military planning, and financial capacities, including examining the AU need for additional start-up funding, equipment, and logistics assistance, and to identify potential means of improving the effectiveness of such efforts, and to report its findings by 31 January 2009." USUN is instructed to report any deviation from this text to the Department immediately and await further guidance. End edits ¶7. Begin current text of UNSCR on Regional Organizations, revision 1: The Security Council, PP: 1 Reaffirming all its previous resolutions and presidential statements on the cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations, in particular its resolutions 1625 (2005) of 14 September 2005, 1631 (2005) of 17 October 2005, and S/PRST/2004/27 of 20 July 2004, S/PRST/2004/44 of 19 November 2004, S/PRST/2007/7 of 28 March 2007, S/PRST/2007/31 of 28 August 2007 and S/PRST/42 of 6 November 2007, PP:2 Recalling its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and recognizing that cooperation with regional and sub-regional organizations in matters relating to the maintenance of peace and security and consistent with Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations, can improve collective security, PP: 3 Welcoming the role of the African Union in efforts to settle conflicts in the African Continent and expressing its support for the peace initiatives conducted by the African Union, and through sub-regional organizations, PP: 4 Emphasizing the need to strengthen the role of the United Nations in the prevention of armed conflicts, and to develop effective partnerships between the United Nations and regional organizations, in particular the African Union (and its sub-regional organizations),in order to enable early responses to disputes and emerging crises in Africa, and in this regard (welcoming the Secretary-General's proposal of conducting joint reviews SIPDIS by the United Nations and regional organizations of the state of peace and security and of mediation endeavors, particularly in Africa where joint mediation is being undertaken), PP:5 Recognizing that regional organizations are well positioned to understand the root causes of armed conflicts owing to their knowledge of the region which can be a benefit for their efforts to influence the prevention or resolution of these conflicts, PP:6 Stressing the importance of further strengthening cooperation with the African Union in order to assist building its capacity to deal with common collective security challenges in Africa, including through the African Union's commitment of rapid and appropriate responses to emerging crisis situations, and the development of effective strategies for conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peace-building, PP: 7 (Recalling the resolve of Heads of State and Government of the 2005 World Summit to expand, as appropriate, the involvement of regional organizations in the work of the Security Council, and to ensure that regional organizations that have a capacity for the prevention of armed conflict or peacekeeping consider the option of placing such capacity in the framework of the United Nations Standby Arrangements System), PP: 8 Recognizing the importance of strengthening the capacity of African regional and sub-regional organizations in conflict prevention and crisis management, and in post-conflict stabilization, PP: 9 Taking note of lessons learnt from practical cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union, in particular the transition from the African Mission in Burundi (AMIB) to the United Nations Operation in Burundi (ONUB) and the African Mission in Sudan (AMIS) to the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), PP:10 Recognizing that one major constraint facing some regional organizations, in particular the African Union, in effectively carrying-out the mandates of maintaining regional peace and security is securing predictable, sustainable and flexible resources, PP: 11 Acknowledging the contribution of the United Nations Liaison Office in Addis Ababa in strengthening coordination and cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union, as well as the need to consolidate it so as to enhance its performance, PP:12 Taking note of both the report of the Secretary-General on the relationship between the United Nations and regional organizations, in particular the African Union, in the maintenance of international peace and security (S/2008/186) and the report of the Secretary-General on conflict prevention, particularly in SIPDIS Africa (S/2008/18), ¶1. Expresses its determination to take effective steps to further enhance the relationship between the United Nations and regional organizations, in particular the African Union, in accordance with Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter; ¶2. Welcomes and further encourages the ongoing efforts of the African Union and the sub-regional organizations to strengthen their peacekeeping capacity and to undertake peacekeeping operations in the continent, in accordance with Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations and to coordinate with the United Nations, through the Peace and Security Council, as well as ongoing efforts to develop a continental early warning system, response capacity such as the African Standby Force and enhanced mediation capacity, including through the Panel of the Wise; 2.bis Welcomes recent developments regarding cooperation between the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union, including the contribution of the European Union to the enhancement of African Union capacities; ¶3. Underlines the importance of developing a stronger (and structured) relationship between the United Nations Security Council and regional organizations, in particular the African Union Peace and Security Council with a view of making this relationship more effective; ¶4. Encourages the continuing involvement of regional and sub regional organizations in the peaceful settlement of disputes, including through conflict prevention, confidence building and mediation efforts (and promoting transparency and fairness of electoral processes); 4.bis Welcomes regional dialogue and the promotion of shared norms as well as common regional approaches to the settlement of disputes and other issues relating to peace and security; 4.ter Encourages regional and sub regional organizations to strengthen and increase cooperation among them, including to enhance their respective capacity, in the maintenance of international peace and security, and underlines the importance of the United Nations political support and technical expertise in this regard; ¶5. Expresses its determination to strengthen and enhance cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations, in particular the African Union in conflict prevention, resolution and management including good offices, mediation support, effective use of sanctions, and preventive field presence; and in the case of Africa, focusing on the support to the African Union Panel of the Wise among others; ¶6. Stresses that common and co-ordinated efforts undertaken by the United Nations and regional organizations, in particular the African Union in matters of peace and security should be based on their complimentary capacities (and comparative advantages),making full use of their experience, in accordance with the United Nations Charter and the relevant Statutes of the regional organizations; ¶7. Underlines the importance of the implementation of the Ten-Year Capacity Building Programme for the African Union mainly focusing on peace and security, in particular the operationalisation of the African Union Standby Force; ¶8. Encourages the increased engagement of the African Union Peacekeeping Support Team within the Department of Peacekeeping Operations as a coordinating point, aimed at providing necessary expertise and transfer of technical knowledge to enhance the capacity of the African Union's Peace Support Operations Divisions including in mission planning and management, as well as the deployment of the Department of Political Affairs' staff to work with the African Union on the operationalization of the Panel of the Wise and other mediation programmes; ¶9. Encourages closer cooperation between the United Nations Secretariat and the African Union Commission, SIPDIS including through supporting regular follow-up mission by UN Secretariat staff to AU Headquarters to provide further SIPDIS assistance, and share experiences; ¶10. Calls for the enhancement of the role of women and their full participation in conflict prevention, resolution and post-conflict peacebuilding consistent with resolution 1325 (2000); 10.bis Recognizes the increasingly valuable role that regional organizations and other intergovernmental institutions play in the protection of civilians; ¶11. Recognizes the important role of the good offices of the Secretary-General in Africa, and encourages the SIPDIS Secretary-General to continue to use mediation as often as SIPDIS possible to help resolve conflicts peacefully, working in coordination and closely with the African Union and other sub-regional organizations in that regard as appropriate; ¶12. (Recognizing the need to enhance the predictability, sustainability and flexibility of financing regional organizations when they undertake peacekeeping under a United nations mandate, welcomes the Secretary-General's proposal to set-up within three months an African Union-United Nations panel consisting of distinguished persons to consider in-depth the modalities of how to support such peacekeeping operations, in particular start-up funding, equipment and logistics); ¶13. Requests the Secretary-General to include in his regular reporting to the Security Council, assessments of progress on the cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations, in particular the African Union and make concrete recommendations ; ¶14. Decides to remain seized of the matter. RICE