On 29 September 2014, the United Nations-African Union Joint Task Force on Peace and Security held its ninth consultative meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York, on the margins of the sixty-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly. The United Nations Secretariat and African Union Commission were represented by senior officials from the two organizations.
The Joint Task Force (JTF) discussed issues of common interest and identified areas of collaboration in a number of countries, including in Libya, South Sudan and the Sahel. The meeting also discussed forthcoming elections in Africa and agreed on how to coordinate UN-AU actions in support of national efforts to ensure that those elections are conducted smoothly, in order to contribute to the consolidation of peace and security. The JTF also discussed cooperation between the UN and AU on a lessons learned exercise on transitions from African Union peace operations to United Nations peacekeeping operations in Mali and the Central African Republic.
The meeting expressed its serious concern at the security and humanitarian situation in South Sudan where millions of people have become vulnerable to a possible famine. The JTF called on the warring parties to extend full cooperation to the IGAD-led mediation and meaningfully participate in the talks to conclude an inclusive peace agreement that addresses the root causes of the conflict.
The JTF declared its full support for UNMISS and called upon all parties in South Sudan to respect the Mission’s mandate, cooperate with humanitarian support operations and cease all restrictions to their freedom of movement. The JTF declared that sustainable peace was not possible without determined efforts to ensure accountability, healing and reconciliation and, in that regard, expressed its full support for the work of the African Union Commission of Inquiry for South Sudan, UNMISS and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The JTF expressed serious concern over continued conflict in Libya and called on the parties to cease fighting and engage in an inclusive dialogue. The meeting noted the need for enhanced coordination among all stakeholders on initiatives to promote peace in Libya. The meeting also called on all actors and the rest of the international community to fully support the facilitation role of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Bernardino León. The meeting was encouraged by the results of the meeting that brought together the Parties in Ghadames on 29 September 2014, and urged the parties to build on this positive step to further the peace and reconciliation process. The meeting also welcomed the proposed convening under UN and AU auspices of the inaugural meeting of the International Contact Group on Libya established by the AU Peace and Security Council on 23 September 2014.
The JTF expressed its full support for the inter-Malian talks underway in Algiers. Participants urged the Malian parties to pursue the discussions in a spirit of compromise and reconciliation, based on the agreed principles of the respect of the unity and territorial integrity of Mali, as well as the secular nature of the state. The participants noted with satisfaction the steps already taken to include all strands of Malian society in the political process and encouraged continued efforts in that regard, noting that the outcome of the talks can only be sustainable if it has wide support among Malians. The participants strongly condemned the continuing acts of violence and terrorism in northern Mali, including attacks against UN peacekeepers. They urged the armed movements represented in Algiers to abide by their commitment to fully cooperate with MINUSMA and others in efforts to bring such attacks to an end. The meeting urged countries in the Sahel to undertake reforms promoting good governance in order to create a conducive environment to enable the international community’s support to the region to be more effective. Participants highlighted the need to improve coordination among the various initiatives on the Sahel by ensuring the effective functioning of the Coordination Platform for the Sahel, including by strengthening the capacities of the Technical Secretariat and supporting the Government of Mali in its presidency of the platform.
The JTF agreed to deepen the partnership between the UN and the AU on electoral issues particularly in the areas of pre-election needs assessments, information-sharing and analysis and joint/mutual capacity enhancement. In that regard, the meeting noted the recently adopted Security Council resolution 2167 (2014) by which the Council reaffirms its intention to consider further steps to promote closer and more operational cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organizations in the fields of early warning, conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding, and of ensuring coherence, synergy and collective effectiveness of their efforts.
The meeting welcomed the adoption of Security Council resolution 2167, which, inter alia, requested the Secretary-General to initiate, in full and close cooperation with the AU, a lessons learned exercise on the transitions from AU peace operations to UN peacekeeping operations in Mali and the Central African Republic and to produce specific recommendations that could be used for possible future transitional arrangements by no later than 31 December 2014.
The JTF expressed its full support for the steps already undertaken by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the United Nations Office at the African Union, in close consultations with the AU, MINUSCA and MINUSMA, to undertake the proposed exercise. The JTF stressed the need for the exercise to come up with innovative recommendations that would help guide future transitions from the AU to the UN in the area of peacekeeping, and underlined the timeliness of the exercise, and its anticipated outcome, in the context of the review of UN-led missions, requested by the Secretary-General.
Finally, the meeting agreed on the need to intensify collaborative efforts to develop policies and implement strategies in the areas of rule of law and security institutions, including through the AU Policy Framework on Security Sector Reform, the AU Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration Capacity Programme and the Strategic Framework for Mine Action and Explosive Management.