Peace & Security
UNF Targets Conflict Prevention
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** The Secretary-Generalأ¢â‚¬â„¢s strong commitment to conflict prevention, the considerable weight of UN field experience and growing political support from both within the UN and among member states has combined to generate a consensus that the UN must take a lead and sustaining role in preventing violent conflict. Within its Peace, Security and Human Rights program, UNF will work to strengthen the UN for this purpose.
** There has been a notable shift in security crises around the world with a sharp decline in disputes between states and a rise of disputes within them. Violence often emerges from the volatile combination of deprivation and discrimination أ¢â‚¬â€œ conditions often exploited by leaders determined to use violence to achieve their aims.
** Yet a strong international political impulse to address such conflict has encouraged the development and application of workable prevention policies and tools.
** Effective prevention requires both long-term and short-term efforts. Structural prevention emphasizes the importance of long-term engagement and rests on the idea of the capable society or capable state أ¢â‚¬â€œ one characterized by representative governance, widespread market economic activity, robust civil society and grounded on the rule of law.
** In other words, capable states provide for their citizens circumstances of security, well-being and justice that not only make societies better off, but also inhibit the tendency to resort to violence to broker differences. Operational prevention relies on urgent, often more assertive, measures to preempt fatal decisions and avert crisis.
** Operational prevention rests on the effectiveness of early action upon receipt of timely warning.
** UNFأ¢â‚¬â„¢s work in the areas of childrenأ¢â‚¬â„¢s health, women and population, and on the environment highlight the importance of the UNأ¢â‚¬â„¢s role in creating conditions of well-being.
** The Peace, Security and Human rights program will complement these efforts by strengthening the UN to help to create conditions of security and justice within and between societies. UNF will focus on the following priorities within its PSHR program:
** Control of small arms. UNF will develop a framework to support work that will focus on the link between the flow of illicit weapons and the arming of children.
** Human rights and preventive action. UNF will consult intensively with the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights to offer proposals on ways to position the human rights agenda more centrally as an anchor for UN prevention efforts.
** Peace Operations. UNF priorities for strengthening the UN in this area include information and analysis to support early warning, integrated planning, coordinated operations and follow-up development.
** Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Programmatic efforts here will seek to complement priority activities of the Nuclear Threat Initiative once this initiative takes final shape.
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** Strengthening UN Capacity for Conflict Prevention
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** The economic and human costs of post-conflict peacekeeping, peace enforcement, humanitarian assistance and reconstruction have risen dramatically, contributing to the growing demand for enhanced efforts to prevent violent conflict. Accordingly, in 1998, the UN Staff College (UNSC) inaugurated its training program on early warning and preventive measures.
** In December 2000, the Staff College convened a UNF-funded workshop in Havana, Cuba to assess the progress made in the program. The workshop examined the context of the course, the targeted groups for training and new practices in the field, in order to maintain the programأ¢â‚¬â„¢s reputation as the leading edge in conflict prevention.
** Nearly 500 UN field staff, NGO representatives and country-level national staff have participated in various training courses. Seminars held around the world provided real world settings and on-the-ground expertise. The aim is to enhance the professional capacity of UN staff to recognize potential crisis situations, and to analyze, recommend and apply strategic conflict prevention measures with their partners.
** UNF has provided more than ,000 to this UNSC and Department of Political Affairs project.