LEARNING LESSONS FROM HUMANITARIAN AND PEACE-KEEPING EXPERIENCES IS ESSENTIAL TO IMPROVE EFFECTIVENESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF UNITED NATIONS
Press Release
SG/SM/6170
IHA/621
LEARNING LESSONS FROM HUMANITARIAN AND PEACE-KEEPING EXPERIENCES IS ESSENTIAL TO IMPROVE EFFECTIVENESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF UNITED NATIONS
19970226This is Secretary-General Kofi Annan's message to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)/Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) Conference on Humanitarian Action and Peace-keeping Operations (Singapore, 24-26 February), which was delivered by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Yasushi Akashi, on 24 February:
I am pleased to send greetings to participants in the UNITAR/IPS Conference on Humanitarian Action and Peace-keeping Operations, as you gather in Singapore for a very intense three days of talking and thinking.
Having been in charge of the Organization's peace-keeping operations for several years, I am familiar with many of the issues you will be discussing.
We can certainly agree that the international community has a great deal to learn regarding the best ways to conduct peace-keeping operations and the humanitarian actions that take place alongside them. It is not always easy to discern just what the lessons are, or how best to translate them into action. It is my sincere hope that your discussions here will help clarify the issues and point the way to some workable proposals.
Crises do not occur in a vacuum. They do not explode out of nothing. The international community does not lack for experts in the various areas where crises are likely to develop. How do we make use of that expertise? What ought we to be doing for a better understanding of potential problems -- their causes, their dynamics, the best measures to defuse them before the explosion? We need to develop effective ways of evaluating our experience in addressing crises in order to ensure that we respond in a coherent and timely manner. This includes a determination to learn from our setbacks.
From a political and military point of view, some of the lessons have been quite clear. One is that even a credible military presence, with a clear mandate, is insufficient by itself to resolve conflicts. Peace -- real peace -- cannot be achieved through a show of force or even through its use. For a durable solution, the underlying issues which trigger violence must be
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addressed. The parties to the conflict must be helped to reach terms they can all adopt and support. A lasting solution is a solution that all parties recognize as just and are willing to adhere to.
From the humanitarian viewpoint, the imperative is to save lives. But too often we are faced with the consequences of having relied on relief efforts when a conflict seemed intractable or when there was insufficient political will to address its causes. These consequences endure long after the interest of the world public and the media has moved on to something else.
Humanitarian assistance must not be used as a tool to achieve political goals. The political and the humanitarian mandates must not be confused. The former are determined by the Security Council. The latter derive from the need to provide concrete help and from the principles of international humanitarian law.
The challenge, therefore, is to acknowledge the differences of the political-military and of the humanitarian perspectives and to work together towards common goals. The key is a coherent strategy.
We must improve our collective capacity to develop a holistic approach to conflict situations in which the political, humanitarian and, where possible, the development actors can operate on the basis of clearly defined and understood principles.
I count on your discussions of lessons from recent humanitarian and peace-keeping experiences to help us to chart the way forward. Learning and applying such lessons is an essential step in improving the effectiveness -- and the accountability -- of the United Nations.
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