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Mr. President,
Thank you so much for organizing this open debate on Conflict Prevention and guiding us by circulating a well-crafted concept paper.
We agree with you that the nature of conflict has changed over the past 100 years. Most of the conflicts today are intra-state; but many still are inter-state.
For conflict prevention, the United Nations and this body – the Security Council – derive authority from the Charter to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace; suppress acts of aggression; uphold the principle of equal rights and self-determination of people; and promote international economic and social cooperation. This then is the full context of preventive diplomacy.
From experience, we have learnt that:
The peaceful settlement of disputes and conflict prevention are closely related.
States themselves have primary responsibility to prevent conflicts with the help of the United Nations.
Preventive action would be effective if it is taken at any early stage , has a long-term human rights and humanitarian perspective, and is geared towards addressing the root causes.
Peace and security and sustainable development should not be separated, because both processes are mutually reinforcing.
The success of prevention would be assured with the well-coordinated participation of multiple actors and entities, especially regional and sub-regional organizations.
Mr. President,
Prevention should never become a pretext for interventionism. Preventive diplomacy does not mean preventive deployment or peace enforcement. We like your phrase: “… The Council should serve as a smoke detector, not just a fire extinguisher.” Conflicts should not be brought to the Council’s table only after they have already erupted. At the same time, the Council should avoid activism in situations where parties are in a position to handle and resolve their differences or where regional mechanisms can play a more effective role. The Council should not inadvertently become an instrument for igniting or fueling crises.
After hostilities have already broken out, such as in Gaza, the Council’s responsibility increases manifold to intercede and intervene to stop further deterioration. Passivity or a hands off approach in the face of a raging crisis should not be an option.
In the recent past, there has been a growing tendency in the Council to pass resolutions under Chapter VII. The Council feels that its action is not potent enough if it has not done so. Some situations do require immediate action under Chapter VII. But we urge the Council to make full use of the preventive diplomacy tools at its disposal under Chapter VI – especially mediation, arbitration, inquiry, judicial settlement, involvement of regional organizations, and the Secretary General’s good offices – to defuse tensions and to resolve conflicts that are simmering just below the surface but threaten to explode.
The Council has little appetite for the conflicts that are not news-driven. We would suggest that the Secretary General conduct quiet diplomacy, rather than Council members. For its part, the Council can appoint Special Envoys and Special Representatives that can pursue such diplomacy on its behalf. The Council’s preventive missions should be properly mandated and pursued to enhance the twin objectives of building confidence and finding solutions.
Mr. President,
The Council is not omnipotent. Many decisions impinging on peace and security and especially those involving major powers are taken outside the Council. It is therefore important for these powers to use the full cycle of early warning, conflict prevention and crisis management to avoid descent into a new Cold War or exacerbation of tensions. A timely agreement between major powers on solutions for Syria and Ukraine, for instance, could have averted escalation of these conflicts.
Post–conflict peace-building arrests relapse to conflict. Therefore full potential of the Peacebuilding Commission should be used to stabilize situations in conflict-prone regions and to rebuild them.
The Security Council’s efforts to prevent conflicts would lack credibility if its resolutions were implemented selectively. This Council’s resolutions on longstanding issues await attention and implementation, while it takes on new issues. The Council should uphold the international rule of law.
I thank you, Mr. President.