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Annan endorses far-reaching proposals for UN peacekeeping operations
23 August -- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today endorsed a series of far-reaching proposals for improving UN peace operations contained in a report by a panel of international experts he set up in March.

"I urge all Member States to join me in considering, approving and supporting the implementation of those recommendations," the Secretary-General writes in a letter> forwarding the Report of the Panel on UN Peace Operations to the Security Council and the General Assembly. He also informs them that he has designated Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette to oversee the preparation of a detailed implementation plan.

The Panel, chaired by former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi, and comprising 10 experts from all regions of the world, addressed the need to "to rethink the historically prevailing view of peacekeeping as a temporary aberration rather than a core function of the UN."

Emphasizing the fundamental need to prevent conflicts from breaking out and the importance of strengthening early warning systems, the Panel sets out concrete proposals for making the UN a more credible force for peace. Among its many recommendations, it calls for providing peacekeeping troops with the authorization, equipment and backing to respond to violence against civilians and to take action against one side in a conflict if it violates peace agreements. The Security Council is urged not to finalize resolutions authorizing large peacekeeping missions until Member States have pledged the necessary troops and resources to deploy them successfully. The Secretary-General is called upon to maintain a roster of qualified candidates for key peacekeeping jobs in the field, while Member States are asked to prepare personnel that can be deployed once an operation is established.

In addition, the Panel calls for more steady funding for the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations so as to overcome confusion of "the temporary nature of specific operations with the evident permanence of peacekeeping and other peace operation activities as core functions of the UN."

The Panel warns frankly that "without renewed commitment on the part of Member States, significant institutional change and increased financial support, the UN will not be capable of executing the critical peacekeeping and peace-building tasks that the Member States assign to it in coming months and years."

The report candidly describes what it says the UN "has bitterly and repeatedly discovered over the last decade," namely that "no amount of good intentions can substitute for the fundamental ability to project credible force if complex peacekeeping, in particular, is to succeed." While reaffirming that the consent of the local parties, impartiality and the use of force only in self-defence should remain the bedrock principles of peacekeeping, the Panel nevertheless clarifies that impartiality should not imply lack of action. In cases "where one party to a peace agreement clearly and incontrovertibly is violating its terms, continued equal treatment of all parties by the UN can in the best case result in ineffectiveness and in the worst may amount to complicity with evil."

The authors go on to point out that "No failure did more damage to the standing and credibility of UN peacekeeping in the 1990s than its reluctance to distinguish victim from aggressor."

In order to correct this, the Panel recommends that rules of engagement be sufficiently robust so that UN contingents will not be forced to cede the initiative to their attackers. Further, UN peacekeepers who witness violence against civilians should be presumed to be authorized to stop it, within their means, in support of basic UN principles.

At the same time, the Panel emphasizes the importance of conflict prevention, noting that it is "far preferable for those who would otherwise suffer the consequences of war, and a less costly option for the international community than military action, emergency humanitarian relief, or reconstruction after a war has run its course."

The Panel recommends the creation of a new information-gathering and analysis entity within the UN to accumulate knowledge about conflict situations, distribute that knowledge efficiently, generate policy analyses and formulate long-term strategies.

The report also calls for a comprehensive list of potential special representatives of the Secretary-General, force commanders, civilian police commissioners, their potential deputies, and others, "representing a broad geographic and equitable gender distribution." An on-call list of about 100 experienced and well-qualified military officers should be established, along with lists of civilian police, international judicial and penal experts and human rights specialists. Member States should established pools of police officers and related experts, according to the report.

Calling on Member States to "accept that primary responsibility for reform lies with them," the report says that most failures occurred because the Security Council and the Member States crafted and supported "ambiguous, inconsistent and under-funded mandates and then stood back and watched as they failed, sometimes even adding critical public commentary as the credibility of the UN underwent its severest tests."

The Panel warns that the changes it recommends will have no lasting impact unless Member States summon the political will to support the UN politically, financially and operationally to enable it to be truly credible as a force for peace.

Concluding their report, Panel members describe their shared vision, writing, "We see, above all, a UN that has not only the will but also the ability to fulfil its great promise and to justify the confidence and trust place in it by the overwhelming majority of humankind."