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SG/SM/6653

SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES INTENSIFIED COOPERATION BETWEEN UNITED NATIONS, REGIONAL GROUPINGS IN CONFLICT-PREVENTION UNDERTAKINGS

27 July 1998


Press Release
SG/SM/6653


SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES INTENSIFIED COOPERATION BETWEEN UNITED NATIONS, REGIONAL GROUPINGS IN CONFLICT-PREVENTION UNDERTAKINGS

19980727 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY New York Speech Cites Cases Where Early Action Proved Critical; Stresses Need for Consultation, Coordination, Cost-Effective Division of Labour

This is the text of an address to be delivered by Secretary-General Kofi Annan tomorrow (28 July) at the third United Nations-regional organizations meeting in New York:

I am very pleased to welcome you to the United Nations today. This is the first time that I have the privilege of hosting this meeting. As someone who has long sought closer cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations, I hope that our deliberations will lead to genuine progress in our ability to coordinate our efforts and maximize their impact. Our meeting's theme, "Cooperation for Conflict Prevention", demands nothing less.

As many of you know, the first two meetings between the United Nations and regional organizations, held in 1994 and 1996, focused on establishing the principles that would guide our cooperation. These meetings also considered practical and more effective ways of working together in the field of international peace and security.

Two additional organizations -- the Francophonie and the Council of Europe -- are attending this year's meeting. The growing number of participating organizations reflect the increasing importance of regionalism as a force in international affairs. Over the past year, I have had the privilege of addressing a number of your organizations, among them, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the Organization of American States (OAS) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In every case, I have witnessed a new sense of mission and purpose.

The need for increased cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations has never been greater. In an era when the principal threat to human security comes from new, more diverse and more deadly forms of conflicts, the United Nations and regional organizations have an opportunity -- indeed an obligation -- to enhance our cooperation for the prevention of such conflicts.

I say "obligation" because the nature of modern conflict is threatening the very fabric of human coexistence. When genocide, mass rape and atrocities against children can take place from the Balkans to Rwanda, war can no longer be seen as a continuation of politics by other means. When civilians, not soldiers, make up the bulk of war's casualties, peace is no longer an option, but a necessity.

Indeed, the challenge of conflict prevention goes to the very heart of the shared mission of the United Nations and regional organizations for the next century. That is why I proposed the general theme of "Conflict Prevention" as the topic for this year's meeting and why I am gratified by the warm response that heads of the regional organizations have given to this proposal.

As the United Nations continues to increase its capabilities, it is ever more important to form effective linkages with regional organizations. We must do more to promote a more rational and cost-effective division of labour that ensures effectiveness, enhances coordination and improves our ability to actually halt and prevent conflict -- the only standard by which our efforts ultimately will be judged.

We must be willing to seek out and establish our comparative advantages in the various areas of tomorrow's challenges -- where the OAU may be better suited for a mediation role; where the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) may be better suited for an election monitoring role; where NATO may be better suited for a peacekeeping role; where the United Nations may be better suited to negotiate the resolution of a conflict and provide a peacebuilding mission.

As you know, early warning leading to early action is critical to successful conflict prevention. As we seek out ways to better identify "hot spots", propose solutions for peaceful resolutions of disputes and try to summon the necessary political will, there are a number of questions for us all to explore.

First, how do we focus on creating effective mechanisms that move from early recognition of a potential crisis through the steps where effective preventive actions can be applied? Second, how does each organization approach conflict prevention in general? Third, what are the tools each organization uses for conflict prevention? Fourth, how can we work together to overcome the doubts and concerns of Member States?

Up to now, the most common form of cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations in the preventive field has been primarily in the form of consultation and diplomatic support. Over the last few years, we have achieved this with the OAS in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.

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We have also achieved this with the OSCE and the Council of Europe in Nagorno-Karabakh, Bosnia, and Tajikistan, with the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Cambodia, and with the OAU, the Arab League, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Somalia.

While we know that no single model of cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations will cover all cases, there are a number of steps that may immediately improve our work. Among them are more regular consultation; better flows of information; exchange of liaison officers; extended visits of staff at working level between headquarters; and similar measures to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

It has already been decided to appoint a United Nations liaison officer at OAU headquarters in Addis Ababa. Such an office is expected to facilitate the exchange of information and improve the coordination of our activities. It could serve as a model to be replicated with other regional organizations.

Ultimately, however, it is our Member States who must engage the promise of multilateral conflict prevention. We must, therefore, assure Member States that, far from infringing on their sovereignty, activities such as early warning, preventive action and peace-building seek to restore the authority and legitimacy of States confronted with threats to their security and stability.

It is my sincere hope that this meeting can build on the previously agreed general principles and move beyond to consider the concrete and practical aspects of cooperation in the field of conflict prevention. Our challenge, above all, is to mobilize effective political will for prevention from Member States.

Without that will, no amount of awareness, and no degree of warning, will lead to progress for those who need it most -- the threatened, the vulnerable, the people of the world for whom the United Nations was created.

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For information media. Not an official record.