• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Security Council leaders articulate vision for more effective peacekeeping
7 September -- Leaders from the 15 members of the Security Council, in a summit meeting today, articulated a vision of a more effective collective endeavour to maintain international peace and security in a debate which addressed fundamental issues of conflict prevention, more effective peacekeeping, intervention in the internal affairs of a State and Council reform.

The need to broaden the concept of security was a theme articulated by a number of speakers. This concept encompassed pressing social and economic problems, such as the spread of infectious disease, poverty and the illicit trade in natural resources, particularly diamonds, they argued. Such factors were identified as the root causes of many conflicts which must be tackled as a fundamental part of efforts to establish peace and stability in many regions of the world, particularly Africa. There was a strong consensus on the need to strengthen conflict prevention efforts. A number of speakers called for the establishment of early warning mechanisms and other measures for this purpose.

The question of when the Council should intervene was also a focus of many statements, with some speakers emphasizing the primacy of State sovereignty and others the imperatives of action to prevent human rights abuses and other humanitarian crimes. The working methods and size of the Council itself were also at issue, with several participants emphasizing the need for reform in these areas. Proposals for improving the UN's peacekeeping performance, especially those contained in the recent Report of the Panel on Peace Operations, were also widely discussed -- and widely endorsed -- by the leaders. They drew particular attention to the Report's call for bolstering the UN's capacity to deploy effectively by giving it the tools it needs to carry out the tasks entrusted to it by the Council.

At the outset of the meeting, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said there was a "crisis of credibility" facing the United Nations and called on the leaders present to give the world body the "means to make the difference between life and death." Referring to the recommendations in the Report, he pledged to "make those changes for which I am responsible" and urged the Council to do the same.

Wim Kok, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, welcomed the Report's recommendations, but stressed that enhancing the effectiveness of the UN peace operations required political courage. "If and when necessary, the Member States should allow the UN to deploy rapidly and under a robust mandate," he said. "The Member States should be prepared to make sufficient resources available." He added that they should also "take another look at the application of the principle of impartiality when dealing with local parties to a conflict."

United States President Bill Clinton, strongly endorsing the Report, said, "We must do more to equip the United Nations to do what we ask it to do." He stressed the need to provide "peacekeepers who can be rapidly deployed, properly trained and equipped, able to project credible force." The US President also urged a broader definition of security, saying "Until we confront the iron link between deprivation, disease, and war, we will never be able to create the peace that the founders of the United Nations dreamed of."

The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, emphasized that peacekeeping operations should deal with the root causes of conflicts, and the Council should express strong support for poverty eradication, sustainable development, democracy, good governance, the rule of law and human rights as the foundations of peace. The only female participant, Ms. Hasina, said "We refuse to see women merely as victims of wars. We should recognize their role in solving conflicts." She also called for the Council to take a more proactive approach to conflicts, as it had done by sending Council missions to Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said State security was essential, "but it is not sufficient to ensure the safety and well being of people." He stressed the need to broaden the Council's definition of security to encompass human security. The Council, he said, must give greater weight to humanitarian principles and human rights in deciding when to act. He also endorsed the Report's call for peacekeeping mandates to be consistent with realities on the ground, and its emphasis on the need for adequate resources.

Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, said the reforms proposed were "absolutely essential." He said the Council must be better organized to carry out tougher work. He joined others in calling for attention to the factors behind instability, saying "We cannot isolate the conflict from the root causes of it." Secretary-General Kofi Annan's efforts should be matched by the Security Council, he said, in order for it to find better ways of dealing with conflicts.

The President of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, said that while the use of sanctions had shown varying degrees of success, "they remain a valuable tool to use in various situations where wars and rebel atrocities are fuelled by the illegal trade in diamonds and other natural resources." By way of example, he mentioned the situations in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone. "Sanctions can be used in the same way to curb the illicit arms flow to and from Africa, which endangers lives and threatens peace and security."

Malian President Alpha Oumar Konare said that while weapons of mass destruction must be dealt with, for regions like Africa, small arms were the weapons of massive destruction. They were sometimes given away free of charge, sold under conditions that defied all agreements, or sold on credit on the promise of raw materials. He called for international normative standards to control the circulation of small arms.

French President Jacques Chirac emphasized the need to "tackle everything that finances and fuels conflicts" and called for the establishment of a permanent body within the UN to control diamond trafficking. He agreed with a number of the conclusions of the Report, including its emphasis on the need for States to provide the UN with the right quality and quantity of personnel and equipment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed the need to improve the anti-crisis potential of the UN, calling for the development of a "culture of crisis prevention." He emphasized that "only the Security Council has the right to sanction such an extreme measure as the use of force" in a crisis situation. "While formulating in exact terms the mandate and the rules for conducting peacemaking operations, in particular on the basis of Chapter VII of the UN Charter [which allows for the use of force], we should not permit introduction of anybody's self-serving interests," he said. Concerning Africa, he said that the Council should closely coordinate its activities with the peacemaking efforts of the continent's countries.

Leonid Kuchma, the President of Ukraine, said the Council's "exclusive monopoly on authorizing the use of force except for cases where the right to self-defence is being exercised" should remain the major foundation of the collective security system. He also emphasized the importance of preventing conflicts, saying "conflict prevention operations should gain prominence as a qualitatively new model of peacekeeping activities."

Argentine President Fernando de la Rúa said the principle of non-intervention must be respected, "but at the same time, we think that a complementary value should be added to it: the principle of non-indifference." He explained that this meant that perpetrators of crimes that offend humankind's conscience could not be left unpunished.

President Jiang Zemin of China stressed that the success of UN peacekeeping operations depended on observance of the principles of the Charter, particularly respect for State sovereignty, non-interference in the internal affairs of recipient countries, prior consent of the parties concerned, neutrality and the non-use of force except for self-defence. He also called for reform of the Security Council, emphasizing that this should include addressing the "under-representation of developing countries."

"Rightful concerns over sovereignty cannot allow us to turn a blind eye to the forces of evil, but the speed and yardstick for collective action cannot be determined solely by strategic geopolitical considerations," said Prime Minister P.J. Patterson of Jamaica. He also addressed the issue of Security Council reform, saying it was "high time" to move forward with that process. "By failing to take note of changes in the relative standing of States in the past half century and the expansion of United Nations membership, the Security Council has allowed its representative character to be diminished and its democratic legitimacy to suffer," he said.

The President of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, stressed the need to improve the Council's working methods and expand its membership. "The aim is to ensure that the Security Council becomes more representative, keeps pace with the different developments on the world scene, and its resolutions assume greater effectiveness and greater credibility away from any form or manifestation of double standards," he said.

Dato'Seri Syed Hamid Albar, Malaysia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, said the Council should treat each conflict in an even-handed manner, lest it be accused of taking a selective approach. In particular, he said, the Permanent members who could block consensus must put aside their narrow political interests and join the consensus, in the interest of the international community. He also called for attention to the UN's lack of institutional capacity, saying the Secretariat, particularly its Department of Peacekeeping Operations, must be further strengthened.

The only other time that the Council has met at the level of head of State or Government was on 31 January 1992. That summit was convened under the theme "the responsibility of the Security Council in the maintenance of international peace and security."