APRIL 16 THEMATIC DEBATE: DRAFT UNSCR AND

UNCLAS STATE 038598

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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,

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including through supporting regular follow-up mission by UN
Secretariat staff to AU Headquarters to provide further

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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

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Secretary-General to continue to use mediation as often as

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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