UN Chronicle: Issue 4, 2000: Fourth Committee: Peacekeeping Reform

With the report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, also called the Brahimi Report, released on 21 August, just weeks before the fifty-fifth General Assembly, the issue of peacekeeping was the focal point of discussion in the Fourth Committee.

The Panel was established by the Secretary-General in March 2000 and chaired by Lakdhar Brahimi, Under-Secretary-General for Special Assignments in support of the Secretary General's preventive and peacemaking efforts. Its report contains a number of recommendations for changes in the way the United Nations handles peacekeeping, including: extensive restructuring of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, a new information and strategic analysis unit to service all United Nations departments concerned with peace and security; an integrated task force at Headquarters to plan and support each peacekeeping mission from its inception; and more systematic use of information technology.

Many of the proposed changes require political, financial or operational decisions from Member States. Subsequently, the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations met in extraordinary session to discuss in a 119-member open-ended working group the Panel's recommendations, as well as a subsequent report by the Secretary-General on the Special Committee's recommendations on peacekeeping contained in its last report to the General Assembly(A/54/839).

In an interview with the Chronicle, Michel Duval, Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada and Chairman of the Working Group on Peacekeeping, said the Special Committee reviews peacekeeping in all its aspects every year from Member States' input. Although the Brahimi Report is on peace operations, the focus was on peacekeeping, thus it was taken up by the Special Committee, which spent one month reviewing the Report. He also noted that about 65 per cent of the Report is drawn from the work of the Special Committee.

Two of the most contentious issues among some delegates, according to Mr. Duval, were the fear of what he called "suffocation from the North"—that peacekeeping would he used as an excuse to intervene in the internal affairs of Member States, and the other is the concern that peacekeeping operations will be improved at the expense of development issues. Personally, he said, "I think it is a fear that is not based on logic. You cannot rationalize fear, but that is where the fault-line was." Even so, he noted that, despite some apprehension, it was recognized that there was a need for a stronger peacekeeping capacity in the Secretariat.

As of 1 January 2001, there are 15 peacekeeping operations with 37,719 military personnel and civilian police serving under the auspices of the United Nations. The estimated cost of operations from 1 July 2000 to 30 June 2001 is between $2.6 billion and $3 billion. According to Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno in his report to the Fourth Committee, presently roughly 400 Headquarters staff supported 58,000 field personnel. It is widely recognized that in recent years there has been a growing demand for United Nations peacekeeping missions. Moreover, the scope of these missions has been much broader than the "traditional" peacekeeping operations of monitoring ceasefires and separation of forces after inter-State wars. Under the circumstances, according to the Brahimi Report, among other emergencies, the problem of understaffing at the Secretariat needed remedy. However, some Member States expressed concerned over what they call a "simplification of a complex problem". Nev ertheless, after what one diplomat called "excruciatingly going over the details" in the Brahimi Report, 93 posts were approved "to give the Secretariat the oxygen it needed".

Other major findings of the Special Committee included the necessity of strengthening and formalizing the consultation process between the Security Council and troop-contributing countries. Other areas given a high-level importance were the issues of senior mission personnel and the United Nations Standby Arrangements System. These reflected concerns raised during the general debate on peacekeeping in the Fourth Committee. Other problems that needed to be addressed, some delegates told the Chronicle, were political will, willingness of countries to contribute troops, the preparedness of those forces, and the working method of the Security Council which sets the mandate for these missions.

In a Chronicle interview, Graham Maitland, Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of South Africa, called the Brahimi recommendations "a refreshing approach". He thought the issue was not about development vis a vis peacekeeping, and stressed that the focus should be on conflict prevention. Jose A. de Ory, First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of Spain, also observed that the Brahimi Report "is not about moving people from different departments. It's about doing things in different ways.... This thrust has somehow been lost."

Ambassador Duval emphasized that the matter of peacekeeping is urgent because "we see situations when peacekeeping is done by other organizations. It is a firm belief that the UN must regain its central role in peacekeeping." Echoing what delegates have said in debates, he also stressed that it is not only peacekeeping that needs reform but the Security Council, Member States and the Secretariat as well. He said that Member States have different roles. "The Member States appear as members of the Security Council, which has a special responsibility, then as members of the General Assembly, and in the Fifth Committee as providers of the resources, and they also host peacekeeping missions. It's not just a matter of sovereignty but of responsibility." He agreed that fixing the Secretariat is not the answer to the whole problem of peacekeeping, but it must be addressed.

Eventually, the resolution on the comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects was approved without a vote. According to the terms of the draft, the General Assembly would endorse the proposals, recommendations and conclusions of the report of the Special Committee from its extraordinary session. The Special Committee would resume its consideration of the Brahimi Report and the implementation plan during its forthcoming regular session, which would be held after the completion and submission of the comprehensive review of peacekeeping that it had asked the Secretary-General to prepare and which is expected by May 2001.

On the whole, the Fourth Committee approved 25 draft resolutions and 3 draft decisions. Of the 28 texts approved, 11 draft resolutions and 2 draft decisions were approved without a vote. Besides peacekeeping, decolonization was another issue of concern in the Committee. As the General Assembly adopted the recommendations of the Fourth Committee, it commemorated the fortieth anniversary of its adoption of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples on 8 December, and adopted a resolution declaring the period 2001-2010 the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism by a recorded vote of 125 to 2 (United Kingdom, United States), with 30 abstentions.

In the Fourth Committee itself, the question of decolonization was intensely discussed. Seventeen Non-SelfGoverning Territories are still in existence and speakers urged flexibility in the process of delisting them and expressed opposition to the exploitation of those Territories for natural resources or military activities.

Most delegates agreed that the renewed violence in the Middle East reaffirmed the importance of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Deeply concerned about the Agency's persisting financial problems, the Committee supported the continuation of its work and appealed for increased donor support. There was profound concern that the continuing shortfall in UNRWA's finances has significant negative influence on the living conditions of the refugees most in need, with possible consequences on the Middle East peace process.

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