Note to Correspondents

Deputy Secretary-General to Open First Annual Session of United Nations

Peacebuilding Commission, at Headquarters on 23 June

 

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson will address members of the Peacebuilding Commission at the opening of its first annual session, to be held in the Trusteeship Council Chamber from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, 23 June.

The day-long session, titled “Sustainable support for peacebuilding: the domestic and international aspects”, will consider ways to enhance the mobilization of resources and generate revenues, as well as lessons learned on developing national capacities and resource sustainability in the context of transitioning United Nations peacekeeping missions.

Two interactive working sessions will further explore a number of related issues, including the threat of illicit financial flows and policy recommendations to curb them; ways to improve international support and coordinate the mobilization of resources; and identifying gaps and policy considerations.  Discussion of Sierra Leone’s successful post-conflict transition will take a closer look at the roles played by regional actors, international donors and the United Nations.  Also under examination will be the challenges ahead in Sierra Leone, common to many post-conflict societies, and ways to address them.  The closing segment will present an appraisal of the day’s discussions and observations.

In addition to the Deputy Secretary-General’s address, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota ( Brazil), Chair of the Commission, will make opening remarks.  Former President José Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste, currently Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau, will deliver the keynote address, and the Presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council will provide closing remarks.

Established in 2005 as a post-conflict mechanism to help struggling States avoid relapsing into war and chaos, the Peacebuilding Commission was intended to provide strategic advice and harness expertise and financing from around the world.  It is an intergovernmental advisory body of the General Assembly and the Security Council which is underpinned by the Peacebuilding Support Office within the United Nations Secretariat.

Monday’s session is scheduled to coincide with Peacebuilding Day, 23 June, which was designated as such by a high-level Commission meeting held in September 2012, during which participants committed themselves to ensuring that efforts to support national peacebuilding endeavours would continue.

According to a concept note prepared for the session, resource mobilization must be addressed both in its national and international components, with due consideration for the principle of national ownership and the fundamental objective of providing sustainable support to improve the lives of affected populations.

The note states that the proposed theme matches the criteria set out in the agreed modalities for convening the annual session (see annex to document A/68/729-S/2014/67) while reflecting the multidimensional nature of peacebuilding and having the potential to attract broader interest from among countries emerging from conflict and key partners within and outside the United Nations.  It will be framed and presented in a narrative and supported by examples through introductory and keynote statements to be delivered during the session’s opening and closing segments.

According to the concept note, the interactive discussions should aim at further elaborating, in the selected sub-themes, where intergovernmental policy and political support can improve outcomes for people in countries emerging from conflict.  The discussions will draw on examples from the experiences of the Commission and the countries on its agenda, and possibly others that have undergone similar experiences.

For additional information about the session, please contact Paolo Fontana at tel:  +1 917 367 4222, e-mail:  fontana@un.org.  Please visit http://www.un.org/en/peacebuilding for more information on the Peacebuilding Commission and http://www.un.org/en/peacebuilding/annualsession2014.shtml for additional documents on the annual session.

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For information media • not an official record