Implementing "An Agenda for Peace"

IN RESPONSE to my report entitled "An Agenda for Peace", the General Assembly adopted resolutions 47/120 A and B on 18 December 1992 and 20 September 1993, respectively. In the first resolution the Assembly gave me a clear mandate to pursue preventive diplomacy and to strengthen the Secretariat's capacity in an early-warning mechanism, in particular collection and analysis of information, for situations likely to endanger international peace and security. The Security Council has also held a number of meetings to examine specific proposals made in "An Agenda for Peace", and the President of the Council has issued some 10 statements or letters as part of the review process.

On 3 January 1995, I issued a position paper entitled "Supplement to `An Agenda for Peace'" (A/50/60-S/1995/1), in which I set forth additional recommendations, highlighting the areas where unforeseen, or only partly foreseen, difficulties had arisen and where there is a need for Member States to take the "hard decisions" noted in my 1992 report (A/47/277-S/24111). I also drew conclusions with regard to the crucial distinction between peace-keeping and enforcement action, as well as to the circumstances in which military force is a useful tool of diplomacy and those in which it is counterproductive.

In response to the Supplement, and after intensive discussions on 18 and 19 January 1995, the Security Council issued a presidential statement (S/PRST/1995/9) in support of that position paper. The Council welcomed and shared the priority I had given to action to prevent conflict. Furthermore, it encouraged all Member States to make the fullest possible use of instruments of preventive action, including the good offices of the Secretary-General, the dispatch of special envoys and the deployment, with the consent as appropriate of the host country or countries, of small field missions for preventive diplomacy and peacemaking. Among other things, the Security Council hoped that the General Assembly, as well as other organizations and entities, would accord the Supplement a high degree of priority. It is encouraging to see that the lessons of contemporary peace-keeping have begun to appear not only in United Nations documents but in the training manuals of a number of Member States as well.

In the General Assembly, the Informal Open-ended Working Group on An Agenda for Peace continued its work during 1995 on issues contained in "An Agenda for Peace" and the Supplement.

Encouraged by such interest and in the belief that it is evidently better to prevent conflicts through early warning, quiet diplomacy and, in some cases, preventive deployment, than to undertake major politico-military efforts to resolve conflicts after they have broken out, I intend to redouble my efforts to perform the task entrusted to me under the Charter. If the United Nations is to play a timely and constructive role in averting or mitigating the destructive effects of complex crises, it is essential that the various elements of the Organization have an early, common view of the nature of the problem and the options for preventive action. In the Supplement, I noted that the multifunctional nature of both peace-keeping and peace-building had made it necessary to improve coordination within the Secretariat, so that the relevant departments function as an integrated whole under my authority and control.

It is in this context that, following an initiative of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, the three substantive departments of the Secretariat, the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, the Department of Political Affairs and the Department of Peace-keeping Operations, have developed a flow-chart of actions -- information sharing, consultations and joint action -- for the coordination of their respective activities in the planning and implementing of complex operations in the field. This mechanism, known as the "Framework for coordination", covers the departments' activities during routine monitoring and early-warning analysis, assessment of options for preventive action where possible, fact-finding, planning and implementation of field operations, and conduct of evaluations or lessons-learned exercises.

An important element of the Framework for Coordination is the provision for staff-level consultations by the three departments, as well as the United Nations Development Programme, the Commission on Human Rights, the Department of Public Information and other parts of the Organization, to undertake joint analyses of early-warning information from a variety of sources, and to formulate joint recommendations for possible preventive measures. The individual departments -- particularly the Department of Political Affairs -- will retain the authority to implement preventive action, under my direction.

To ensure continuous consultation between the Secretary-General and the Security Council and to assist the latter in being informed about the latest developments, particularly in the area of peace-keeping operations, I have appointed one of my Special Advisers, Mr. Chinmaya Gharekhan, as my personal representative to the Council. Troop-contributing Governments are also understandably anxious to be kept fully informed. Therefore, I have endeavoured to meet their concerns by providing the Governments with regular briefings and by engaging them in dialogue about the conduct of the operation in question. Members of the Security Council have been included in such meetings, which the Council recently decided to formalize. It is important, however, that this reform should not lead to any blurring of the three distinct areas of authority, which include overall political direction that belongs to the Security Council; executive direction and command for which the Secretary-General is responsible; and command in the field, which I entrust to the chief of mission.

All the efforts of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Secretariat to control and resolve conflicts need the cooperation and support of other players on the international stage. Chapter VIII of the Charter defines the role that regional organizations can play in the maintenance of peace and security. Forms of cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations include consultations, diplomatic support, operational support, co-deployment and joint operations. While the capacity of regional organizations for peacemaking and peace-keeping varies considerably, none has yet developed the capacity and experience the United Nations has in those fields. The United Nations is ready to help them when requested to do so and when resources are sufficient. To advance these efforts, I intend to hold another high-level meeting with regional arrangements and organizations as a follow-up to the meeting I convened on 1 August 1994.