Note to Correspondents

SECURITY COUNCIL AD HOC WORKING GROUP ON CONFLICT PREVENTION, RESOLUTION IN AFRICA

CONVENES SEMINAR ON MONDAY, 3 DECEMBER ON EFFECTIVE GLOBAL PREVENTION STRATEGY

The Security Council Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa will hold a seminar entitled “An effective global conflict prevention strategy in Africa, the role of the Security Council” in Conference Room 1 on Monday, 3 December, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3 to 6 p.m.

The decision to hold the seminar emanated from the adoption by the Security Council in August of a presidential statement (document PRST/2007/31), which followed a debate that noted the need to provide coherence and enhanced coordination (both in terms of policy and operationalization) among all stakeholders involved in conflict prevention, highlighting the determination of the Security Council to strengthen its role in preventing and resolving conflicts.

The seminar will focus on systemic and operational levels of conflict prevention, and the role of the Security Council in each of them.  In particular, it will consider how to better implement Security Council resolution 1625; identify some of the existing gaps; clarify the role of the Security Council vis-à-vis different actors/partners (Member States, United Nations system organizations, regional organizations, civil society); and recommend concrete methods to ensure appropriate coordination and coherence among the different stakeholders.

Specifically, the seminar will seek to find answers to the question:  “What more can the Security Council do to prevent the outbreak of conflicts in the first place, particularly in Africa, and hence ease the burden of responding to so many costly crises?”

Following the opening of the session from 10 to 10:30 a.m., at which the Permanent Observer of the African Union to the United Nations, Lila Hanitra Ratsifandrihamanana, and Director and Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, Patrick Hayford, will speak, there will be a session on cooperation between the Security Council and United Nations system organizations facilitated by Margaret Vogt, Deputy Director of the Africa Division of the United Nations Department of Political Affairs.  Panellists will include Jan Egeland, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on matters relating to the prevention and resolution of conflicts, and Carolyn McAskie, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support.

Session II, from noon to 1 p.m., will focus on opportunities for cooperation between the Security Council, the African Union and other partners.  It will be facilitated by Dr. Kwesi Aning, Kofi Annan Centre, Accra, Ghana, who will be joined on the panel by Ms. Hanitra Ratsifandrihamanana; João Manuel Guerra Salgueiro, Permanent Representative of Portugal to the United Nations, European Union Presidency; and Dr. Sarjoh Bah, Center on International Cooperation, New York University.  The sessions are to be followed by a general discussion, which will continue from 3 to 4 p.m., following the lunch break.

The subject of session III, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., will be cooperation among United Nations intergovernmental bodies, specifically, strengthening the Security Council’s interaction with the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Peacebuilding Commission and the United Nations human rights mechanism.  Facilitated by Marcello Spatafora, Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for December, panellists will include Peter Maurer, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations and Co-Chair of the General Assembly Group of Friends on Conflict Prevention.

The closing session, from 5:30 to 6 p.m., will be on conclusions and recommendations on the role of the Security Council in enhancing coherence in conflict prevention, facilitated by Luc Joseph Okio, Chargé d’Affaires ai of the Republic of the Congo to the United Nations, Chairperson of the Security Council Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa.

For further United Nations information, please contact Oseloka Obaze, Senior Political Officer, Department of Political Affairs, Security Council Secretariat Branch, Tel: 1 212 963 5298 or e-mail: obaze@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record