ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT SAYS REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS CAN HELP MAKE CONFLICT PREVENTION EFFECTIVE PEACE MAINTENANCE INSTRUMENT
Press Release
GA/SM/51
ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT SAYS REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS CAN HELP MAKE CONFLICT PREVENTION EFFECTIVE PEACE MAINTENANCE INSTRUMENT
19980728 Following is the text of the statement by the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), at the opening today of the third meeting between the United Nations and regional organizations:I am delighted to have the opportunity to participate in this third meeting between the United Nations and regional organizations, which, I think, we now have every right to describe as a "process, and not an event", to recall the Secretary-General's remark on the United Nations reform.
As we embark today on another important step in this process, I think it would be only fitting to pay tribute once again to the foresight of the founders of our Organization. By including a short, three-article chapter in the United Nations Charter, they set forth the basic principles governing the activities of regional arrangements or agencies and established the legal framework for their cooperation with the United Nations in the area of the maintenance of international peace and security. They laid the groundwork for an effective mechanism of international cooperation.
The key question, of course, is how often and how well that mechanism is being used for its stated purposes. Due to a complex web of geo-political and ideological circumstances, for a significant period in United Nations history, Chapter VIII of the Charter remained in a kind of stand-by mode. The dramatic changes in the world, precipitated in part by the end of the cold war and the collapse of the Soviet Union, have refocused attention on the role of regional organizations.
The growing interest in this issue and increased awareness of the benefits of such interaction has been reflected in the work of the General Assembly. For almost two decades, the question of cooperation between the United Nations and various regional organizations has been a staple item of Assembly sessions. Over the past several years in particular, there have been repeated calls for improved cooperation. In a major development, the General Assembly approved, in December 1994, the Declaration on the Enhancement of Cooperation between the United Nations and Regional Arrangements and Agencies in the Maintenance of International Peace and Security. Drafted by the
Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations, the Declaration made an important contribution towards developing the legal and political framework for a working relationship between the two crucial actors in the international arena.
At the current session, these issues received further elaboration. Having considered a number of substantive reports by the Secretary-General, the Assembly noted considerable progress in the evolving cooperation, citing positive experiences in different parts of the world.
Significantly, an ever greater emphasis in the adopted resolutions was placed on conflict prevention. Thus, resolution 52/20, in part, commended the efforts of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to enhance its Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution in Africa and invited the United Nations to assist the OAU in the prevention of conflicts in Africa, indicating specific areas where such assistance was particularly crucial. Meanwhile, resolution 52/22 acknowledged the increasing contribution of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security in its region through activities in early warning and preventive diplomacy. In that context, the Assembly drew special attention to the work of the High Commissioner on national minorities, as well as crisis management, arms control and disarmament, and efforts in supporting the economic and human dimensions.
All of this only serves to underscore that the choice of the theme of today's meeting is very apt and timely. In this connection, I would like to commend the Secretary-General for preparing an insightful and thought- provoking background paper in the form of an annotated agenda which offers a perceptive analysis and -- which is no less important -- poses many probing questions. Asking the right question, as we all know, is a key to finding the right answer.
It is imperative, for example, to ask ourselves why, for all of its obvious merits, prevention remains such an underutilized tool. Hardly anyone needs convincing that preventive action is a much more effective way of dealing with conflicts than allowing disputes to spin out of control and then facing the consequences of an all-out conflagration. And yet, as it is rightly pointed out in the paper, there is too little emphasis on prevention and too much on cure. Identifying the main factors that impede a wider use of conflict prevention is the necessary step towards finding ways to remedy the situation. Obviously, for the culture of prevention to take a firm hold on the international arena, some serious rethinking would have to be done by all the players.
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Such cultural changes are also essential to enable an effective use of the already available arsenal of prevention tools. There can be no prevention, for instance, without an effective mechanism of early warning, which, in turn, depends heavily on timely and accurate information. Not surprisingly, in the "United Nations reform" resolution adopted at the current session, the Assembly called for an improved supply of the information to the Secretary-General from Member States.
Among other effective methods of deterring conflicts, preventive types of diplomacy, deployment and disarmament have won well-deserved recognition in the diplomatic circles, as well as in the media. This, however, should not overshadow the importance of another essential tool -- even though it may not be as media-friendly -- that of peace-building. There is an urgent need to address in a more focused and sustained way the root causes of conflicts which often stem from abject economic and social conditions, as well as lack of viable mechanisms of power transition or sharing, respect for the rule of law and so on. Similarly, in situations of heightened inter-ethnic suspicions or grievances, there is a crying need for confidence-building as a way of preventing passions from spilling over into an outright confrontation. Once again, this is an area, where cooperation between the United Nations and regional entities can yield good results.
In this regard, I would like to touch on an aspect of regional cooperation that appears to hold considerable promise. I have in mind the creation of subregional entities as part of the ongoing process in the reorganization of international security structures. As the Foreign Minister of Ukraine at that time, I had an opportunity to have a close-up look at the situation in Europe, where the emergence of subregional structures across the old dividing lines -- from the Arctic to the Black Sea -- provides fascinating glimpses into novel security enhancing modalities. These "children of the post-cold war era", such as, for instance, the Central Europe Initiative or the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization, may lack the economic or military power of their "older brothers", but in a variety of subtle and complex ways they contribute to overcoming the cold war, East-West division of the continent and to building security in the new Europe.
The Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization is a good case in point. Today it is the most diverse among all other subregional groups in the Barents-Black Sea belt. It unites 11 countries which differ very greatly in many areas: from size and population to economic and military potential and geostrategic interests. Given their past and present differences, tensions and sometimes even armed conflicts, from the political point of view the organization's five-year existence is being assessed as a success. The Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization provides additional channels for multilateral and bilateral dialogue, and brings around the table neighbouring countries that have often viewed each other with suspicion and distrust. As a
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multi-functional group covering a variety of dimensions, it contributes to subregional stability by improving each country's economic conditions, developing subregional infrastructure and communications, promoting human and professional contacts, encouraging cooperation between local authorities and supporting multi-dimensional approaches to subregional problems.
Clearly, a number of positive developments and initiatives in this sphere can benefit from a closer cooperation with the United Nations and its specialized agencies and programmes. Already there are several proposals for cooperation from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the United Nations Industrial Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the United Nations Industrial Development Programme, among others. The Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization is increasingly viewed as a promising model of subregional cooperation, which together with other subregional structures, may become an important element of the new European security order in the twenty-first century. Development of an effective cooperation between the United Nations and such subregional entities can prove to be an integral component in international activities in conflict prevention.
There is no doubt that the overall global security can only gain from an enhanced cooperation between the world organization and various regional arrangements. "Synergy" may be a somewhat overused buzzword, but I think it applies perfectly to this kind of relationship. Acting within their competence and in full conformity with the United Nations Charter, regional organizations can help to make conflict prevention an effective and practical instrument of peace maintenance in the new millennium.
I am confident that the third meeting between the United Nations and regional organizations will make an important contribution towards reaching that goal and I wish you every success in your work.
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