Addressing root causes of conflict key to effective prevention: Annan
20 July -- To be effective, international efforts to prevent conflicts must address the structural faults that predispose society to crises, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the United Nations Security Council today as it opened a day-long meeting on conflict prevention.
"Prevention is multidimensional. It is not just a matter of putting in place mechanisms such as early warning, disarmament, preventive deployment, or sanctions - necessary though all these may be, at one time or another," Mr. Annan said at the outset of the Council debate in which representatives of close to 30 countries took part.
The Secretary-General stressed that the UN had a special role to play in helping to avert armed conflicts, since peace and development were "the two great responsibilities" of the Organization. He commended the Council for taking the subject of prevention seriously, citing its recent decision to ban imports of unlicensed diamonds from Sierra Leone, following a similar embargo on gems from rebel-controlled Angola.
Pointing out that some of the UN Charter's provisions relating to prevention had been under-utilized by the Council, the Secretary-General made several suggestions on ways it could boost its conflict prevention activities, including holding periodic meetings at the foreign minister level, as provided for in Article 28, to discuss thematic or actual prevention issues.
The Council could also work more closely with other UN organs, Mr. Annan said, proposing that prevention issues be put, for example, on the agenda of the monthly meeting between the Presidents of the Security Council and the General Assembly. The Council might also obtain useful information from the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), as envisaged in Article 65, and request advisory opinions on legal questions from the International Court of Justice, under Article 96.
Closer interaction with non-State actors was another option the Council could consider, Mr. Annan said. "Prevention cannot be achieved by States alone. Civil society, including the corporate sector, has a vital role to play in defusing or avoiding conflicts - as we saw, to take just one example, in South Africa in the 1980s."
Noting that there was no shortage of ideas for avoiding conflict, the Secretary-General pointed, however, to "a worrying lack of political will among Governments, which hold most of the levers of prevention in their hands, either to show political leadership when it is needed, or to commit the necessary resources."
The Secretary-General said that only seven UN Member States had contributed to the Trust Fund for Preventive Action, for a total of $7.4 million in three years. He urged for more support to existing conflict prevention institutions - from the UN to local community relations councils. "Yes, prevention costs money," he said, "but intervention, relief and rebuilding broken societies and lives cost far more."
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
