United Nations, African Union Launch Joint Task Force on Peace and Security

 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Jean Ping, today launched a United Nations-African Union Joint Task Force on Peace and Security, an important new mechanism to enhance strategic cooperation between the two organizations in preventing and resolving conflicts.  The Joint Task Force will meet twice a year at a senior level to review immediate and long-term strategic issues of common interest, including conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

The Secretary-General and the Chairperson reaffirmed their determination to strengthen United Nations-African Union cooperation on ongoing joint peace efforts in Africa.  Groundbreaking joint efforts in Sudan, Guinea and Somalia are examples of an already expanding partnership in responding to difficult challenges on the ground.  They welcomed the African Union’s declaration of 2010 as the Year of Peace and Security in Africa, and commended its efforts to promote a conflict-free Africa.  They approved the terms of reference of the Joint Task Force and agreed that the two organizations will draft a programme of work for the Joint Task Force, in coordination with the newly established United Nations Office to the African Union and the Permanent Observer Mission of the African Union to the United Nations.  The Joint Task Force will undertake its first consultations on 28 September 2010 in New York, in the context of the Year of Peace and Security in Africa.

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