Security Council Presidential Statement Encourages Peacebuilding Commission to Present Recommendations on Sustaining Peace Ahead of Mandate Reviews
The Security Council today encouraged the Peacebuilding Commission to present it with concise and targeted recommendations on efforts to sustain peace in specific situations, ahead of reviews of mandates of United Nations operations.
In a presidential statement presented by Kacou Houadja Léon Adom (Côte d’Ivoire), its President for December, the Council said the Peacebuilding Commission should complement, and not duplicate, the reports of the Secretary-General, and transmit information on the implementation of national peacebuilding priorities that could contribute to mandate formation, review and drawdown strategies.
In that regard, the Council took note of good practice evidenced by the observations presented by the Peacebuilding Commission on the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) and recalled the usefulness of its advice during the drawdowns of United Nations missions in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The Council encouraged the Peacebuilding Commission to continue to align its work with the Council’s calendar and engage with relevant actors to gather diverse perspectives well in advance of relevant Council meetings, welcoming the Commission’s collaboration with the African Union and other regional actors.
Following the presentation of the statement, Carl Skau (Sweden), focal point for relations between the Peacebuilding Commission and the Security Council, welcomed advances in the Commission’s performance in recent years in providing timely and relevant advice to the Council.
He expressed hope that continued communication between the bodies will allow the Commission to reach its full potential, which is particularly useful for the Council in the context of mandate transitions. The collaboration is essential in coordinating the broad scope of efforts needed to maintain lasting peace.
The meeting began at 3:04 p.m. and ended at 3:09 p.m.
Presidential Statement
The full text of presidential statement S/PRST/2018/20 reads as follows:
“The Security Council recalls its resolutions 1645 (2005), 2086 (2013), 2282 (2016), 2413 (2018), 2419 (2018) and its presidential statements PRST/2017/27, PRST/2018/1 and PRST/2018/10.
“The Security Council recognizes that ‘sustaining peace’, as drawn from the Advisory Group of Experts report, should be broadly understood as a goal and a process to build a common vision of a society, ensuring that the needs of all segments of the population are taken into account, which encompasses activities aimed at preventing the outbreak, escalation, continuation and recurrence of conflict, addressing root causes, assisting parties to conflict to end hostilities, ensuring national reconciliation, and moving towards recovery, reconstruction and development, and emphasizing that sustaining peace is a shared task and responsibility that needs to be fulfilled by the Government and all other national stakeholders, and should flow through all three pillars of the United Nations’ engagement at all stages of conflict, and in all its dimensions, and needs sustained international attention and assistance.
“The Security Council recalls its resolution 2413 (2018), in which it inter alia, welcomes the presentation of the Secretary-General’s report on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace and takes note of the General Assembly decision to invite the relevant United Nations bodies and organs, including the Peacebuilding Commission to further advance, explore and consider implementation, as appropriate, of the recommendations and options contained in the report of the Secretary-General, in accordance with the established procedures, during the seventy-third session of the General Assembly.
“The Security Council reaffirms its primary responsibility under the Charter of the United Nations for the maintenance of international peace and security, as well as its commitment to uphold the purposes and principles of the Charter, including its commitment and respect to the principles of political independence, sovereign equality and territorial integrity of all States in conducting all peacekeeping and peacebuilding activities and the need for States to comply with their obligations under international law.
“The Security Council reaffirms the primary responsibility of national Governments and authorities in identifying, driving and directing priorities, strategies and activities for peacebuilding and sustaining peace and welcomes and further encourages the ongoing work of the Peacebuilding Commission to promote national ownership in political, peace and security processes.
“The Security Council reiterates its commitment to enhance the effectiveness of the United Nations in addressing conflict at all stages, from prevention to settlement to post-conflict peacebuilding, and further considers the importance of context-specific continuum of response, utilizing the range of tools available for the United Nations to maintain international peace and security.
“The Security Council recognizes that development, peace and security, and human rights are interlinked and mutually reinforcing.
“The Security Council recognizes that effective peacebuilding must involve the entire United Nations system, and in this regard, emphasizes the importance of joint analysis and effective strategic planning across the United Nations.
“The Security Council acknowledges the progress the Peacebuilding Commission has achieved and underscores that the Peacebuilding Commission has an important role to play as a dedicated intergovernmental advisory body to bring coherence to international peacebuilding efforts and represents a unique platform to convene key actors, such as Member States, including host States and countries concerned, relevant UN actors, as well as international financial institutions, regional organizations and civil society in support of nationally identified peacebuilding priorities and with a view to enhance coordination, advocacy and resource mobilization of peacebuilding activities.
“The Security Council acknowledges the importance of strong coordination, coherence and cooperation with the Peacebuilding Commission in accordance with its resolutions 1645 (2005) and 2282 (2016) and reaffirms its intention to regularly request, deliberate and draw upon the specific, strategic and targeted advice of the Peacebuilding Commission.
“The Security Council notes the importance of the Informal Interactive Dialogues between the Council and the Peacebuilding Commission as a useful venue for exercising the advisory role of the Commission, including the dialogues with the Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa.
“The Security Council encourages the Peacebuilding Commission to present concise, targeted, context-specific and applicable recommendations to the Council, upon its request, on issues related to peacebuilding and sustaining peace in countries considered by both PBC and Security Council, in particular ahead of relevant mandate discussions, complementing and not duplicating the reports of the Secretary-General to the Council, transmitting the implementation of national peacebuilding priorities including through focusing on peacebuilding aspects of peacekeeping operations mandates, which could contribute to the formation, review and drawdown of peacekeeping operations and special political missions’ mandates.
“The Security Council emphasizes the need for further harnessing the role of the Peacebuilding Commission in advancing and supporting an integrated and coherent approach with respect to multidimensional peacekeeping mandates and in this regard takes note of the good practice regarding the observations presented by the Peacebuilding Commission on the renewal of the MINUSCA mandate.
“The Security Council reiterates that peacekeeping ranges from traditional peacekeeping missions, which primarily monitor ceasefires, to complex multidimensional operations, which seek to undertake peacebuilding tasks and address root causes of conflict and welcomes the contribution of peacekeeping operations to a comprehensive strategy for peacebuilding and sustaining peace.
“The Security Council acknowledges the role of the Peacebuilding Commission in advising the Security Council, upon its request, during transitions related to the withdrawal of peacekeeping operations and special political missions, as appropriate, with a focus on implementing exit strategies that seek to help lay the foundations for long-term peace and security. In this regard, the Security Council recalls the usefulness of the Peacebuilding Commission’s advice during the drawdown of UNMIL in Liberia and UNAMSIL in Sierra Leone and recognizes that its platform could be used to consider best practices and lessons learned from the transitions.
“The Security Council encourages the Peacebuilding Commission to continue to align its work with the Council’s calendar and engage with the relevant actors to gather diverse perspectives well in advance of relevant Council meetings.
“The Security Council welcomes the Peacebuilding Commission’s collaboration with regional and subregional organizations, including the African Union, and emphasizes the importance of further engagement with relevant regional actors on regional and country-specific issues with consent of the countries concerned and in accordance with resolutions 1645 (2005) and 2282 (2016).
“The Security Council emphasizes that inclusivity, including the full and effective participation of women, is key to advancing national peacebuilding processes and objectives in order to ensure that the needs of all segments of society are taken into account. The Security Council further emphasizes the substantial link between women’s full and meaningful involvement in efforts to prevent, resolve and rebuild from conflict and those efforts’ effectiveness and long-term sustainability and encourages the PBC to continue to pursue efforts in this regard.
“The Security Council reaffirms the important role youth can play in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and as a key aspect of the sustainability, inclusiveness and success of peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts.
“The Security Council recognizes the role that the Peacebuilding Commission plays in assisting countries’ efforts to implement their peacebuilding priorities, mobilize voluntary contributions and promote coordination and coherence of international assistance.
“The Security Council emphasizes the importance of support from a range of sources to United Nations peacebuilding activities, including through increased voluntary contributions, and strengthened partnerships with key stakeholders, and underlines the important role of the Peacebuilding Fund, and in this regard recommends further exploring of ways for closer cooperation between the Peacebuilding Commission and the Peacebuilding Fund that could, inter alia, allow the Commission to distil good practices in peacebuilding.”