UN Peacebuilding Commission
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The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) is a
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
intergovernmental advisory body of both the General Assembly and the Security Council that supports peace efforts in conflict-affected countries. A key addition to the capacity of the international community in the broad peace agenda, it was established in 2005 with the passage of both A/RES/60/180 and S/RES/1645 Mr. Sérgio França Danese (Brazil) is the incumbent chair of the PBC. The Peacebuilding Commission, which has a unique role to play in advancing intergovernmental coherence through its cross-pillar mandate, has already diversified its working methods to enhance its flexibility as a dedicated intergovernmental platform. Recent good practices of th
Peacebuilding Commission
include attention to cross-border and regional issues in the Great Lakes region and the Sahel, support to the transition from a peace operation in Liberia and the adoption of a gender strategy that is the first of its kind for an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Member States have also used the platform of the commission for constructive discussions on Burkina Faso, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Somalia and Sri Lanka, at the initiative of the countries concerned


Members of the Peacebuilding Commission

The commission is composed o
31 member states
which gather in two main fora: an Organizational Committee, and country-specific Configurations, one for each country that currently is part of the PBC's agenda.


PBC Members

The current composition of the Peacebuilding Commission's Organizational Committee is as follows:


Leadership

The leadersh

of the PBC is currently as follows: * Chair: * Vice-Chairs: and
Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...


Origins of the Peacebuilding Commission

The PBC is one of the new entities created by the reform process initiated during the 60th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, as part of the 2005 World Summit Outcome. The debate over the reform of the United Nations systems is not a recent one. Since the creation of the organization (June 1945), most delegates and commentators believed that the structure they had given birth to was a merely temporary one as a first step towards the establishment of the new multilateral system. Indeed, the third paragraph of article 109 is a clear clue of this initial orientation, as it states that a General Conference aimed at reviewing the UN Charter should be called from the tenth annual session of the General Assembly onward. But, the first attempt to reform the UN structure failed at the very 10th session, when the General Assembly, even though aware of the need for reform, decided to postpone any decision. Various attempts to reform the UN took place over the decades but the core issues (Security Council reform, veto power, UN enforcement) failed to be properly addressed. The PBC was inaugurated in June 2006, with the inclusion of Burundi and Sierra Leona as the first cases of the commission, as previously requested by the Security Council, to develop a country-specific model aiming to contribute to the implementation of the post-conflict tasks in each of both countries.


The High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change

The new environment and challenges brought by the post–September 11 system of international relations spurred the
Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...
Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder a ...
to seek new proposals and solutions to reform a certain sensitive area of the UN system. This approximately was the mandate of the High-Level Threat Panel. Annan announced the membership of the 16-member Panel in a letter, dated November 3, 2003, addressed to the President of the General Assembly, Julian Robert Hunte (
Saint Lucia Saint Lucia is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. Part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), Saint Vincent ...
). Mr Anand Panyarachun, former Prime Minister of Thailand, was appointed to chair the high-level panel on global security threats and reform of the international system. The Panel was asked to analyse and assess future threats to peace and security and to evaluate existing approaches, instruments and mechanisms, including the organs of the UN system. In this view, the Panel was specifically asked to: * Examine today's global threats and provide an analysis of future challenges to international peace and security; * Identify the contribution that collective action can make in addressing these challenges; * Recommend the changes necessary to ensure effective collective action, including but not limited to a review of the principal organs of the United Nations. The list above makes clear that the panel was not asked to formulate policies on specific issues. Rather it was asked to make an assessment of current challenges and to recommend proper changes to meet them effectively. The final report of the High-level Panel, named "A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility," set out several recommendations to address problems and issues in six main areas of concern on which the multilateral system should concentrate its action now and in the decades ahead: # war ''between'' States; # violence ''within'' States (civil wars, gross violations of human rights and genocide); # poverty, infectious diseases and environmental degradation; # nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons; # terrorism; and # transnational organized crime. Considering the second point, the analysis of the panel identified "a key institutional gap: there is no place in the United Nations system explicitly designed to avoid State collapse and the slide to war or to assist countries in their transition from war to peace" (reference: report, paragraph 261). Since the United Nations should be able to act coherently and effectively from preventive action through post-conflict peace-building, the panel recommended establishing a Peacebuilding Commission as a subsidiary body of the Security Council itself. As it is stated in the report, "the core functions of the Peacebuilding Commission should be to identify countries which are under stress and risk sliding towards State collapse; to organize, in partnership with the national Government, proactive assistance in preventing that process from developing further; to assist in the planning for transitions between conflict and post-conflict peacebuilding; and in particular to marshal and sustain the efforts of the international community in post-conflict peacebuilding over whatever period may be necessary". For what concerns more practical and in-depth aspects of this new body, the panel just recommends that the commission should be reasonably small, meet in different configurations in order to consider both general policy issues and country-by-country situations and strategies, involving the main relevant actors in different fields (UN organs such as ECOSOC and representative from UN agencies, International Financial and Economic Institutions, representatives of regional and subregional organizations) and it should be assisted by Peacebuilding Support Office established in the Secretariat.


High-Level Threat Panel members

The High-Level Panel was integrated by 16 prominent politicians, diplomats and development experts: * Anand Panyarachun (Thailand), former
Prime Minister of Thailand The prime minister of Thailand (, , ; literally 'chief minister of state') is the head of government of Thailand. The prime minister is also the chair of the cabinet of Thailand. The post has existed since the Siamese Revolution of 1932, when ...
(chair) * Robert Badinter (France), French Senator and former
Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
*
João Clemente Baena Soares João Clemente Baena Soares (14 May 1931 – 7 June 2023) was a Brazilian diplomat. Soares was born in Belém. He worked at the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations for 31 years before being elected to serve as Secretary General of the O ...
(Brazil), former Secretary-General of the
Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS or OEA; ; ; ) is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, the OAS is ...
; *
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(Norway), former
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and former Director-General of the
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...
; * Mary Chinery-Hesse (Ghana), Vice-chairman, National Development Planning Commission of Ghana and former Deputy Director-General,
International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...
; * Gareth Evans (Australia), President of the
International Crisis Group The International Crisis Group (ICG; also known as the Crisis Group) is a global non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded in 1995. It is a think tank, used by policymakers and academics, conducting research and analysis on global crises. ...
and former Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs; * David Hannay (United Kingdom), former
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and United Kingdom Special Envoy for Cyprus; * Enrique V. Iglesias (Uruguay), President of the
Inter-American Development Bank The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an international development finance institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America. It serves as one of the leading sources of development financing for the countri ...
; *
Amr Moussa Amr Moussa (, , Amr Muhammad Moussa; born 3 October 1936) is an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the Secretary General of the Arab League, Secretary-General of the Arab League, a 22-member forum representing Arab World, Arab states, from ...
(Egypt), Secretary-General of the
Arab League The Arab League (, ' ), officially the League of Arab States (, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world. The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945, initially with seven members: Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, ...
; * Satish Nambiar (India), former
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and United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) commander; * Sadako Ogata (Japan), former
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, l ...
; *
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(Russia), former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation; * Qian Qichen (China), former Vice Premier and
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; * Nafis Sadik (Pakistan), former executive director of the
United Nations Population Fund The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is a United Nations System, UN agency aimed at improving reproductive health, reproductive and maternal health worldwide. Its work includes developing national healthcare strategies and protocols, incr ...
; *
Salim Ahmed Salim Salim Ahmed Salim (, , born 23 January 1942) is a Tanzanian politician and diplomat who has worked in the international diplomatic arena since the early 1960s. He served as prime minister for one year, from 1984 to 1985. Early life Salim was b ...
(United Republic of Tanzania), former Secretary-General of the
Organization of African Unity The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; , OUA) was an African intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 33 signatory governments. Some of the key aims of the OAU were to encourage political and ec ...
; and *
Brent Scowcroft Brent Scowcroft (; March 19, 1925August 6, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, and a two-time National Security Advisor (United States), United States National Security Advisor, first under U.S. President Gerald Ford and then under Georg ...
(United States), former
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and National Security Advisor.


Structure and mandate of the Peacebuilding Commission


Institutional Framework

The Peacebuilding Commission is a subsidiary organ of both the General Assembly and the Security Council, thus the legal basis for its institution is to be found in articles 22 and 29 of the UN Charter, devoted respectively to GA and SC subsidiary bodies. In this regard, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1645 on December 20, 2005, in concurrence with an analogue act approved by the General Assembly, the 60/180 resolution of December 30, 2005. In both texts, the Peacebuilding Commission is described as an intergovernmental advisory body, and among its tasks, there is the duty to submit an annual report to the General Assembly which is supposed to hold an annual session to discuss it. The main task of the new
Peacebuilding Commission The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) is a United Nations intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental advisory body of both the United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly and the United Nations Security Council, Security C ...
is that of taking care of post-conflict actions to be adopted and enforced in countries emerging from conflicts, whose Governments choose to ask for relief from the International Community. It is up to the PBC to collect all available resources and funds directed to support recovery projects in those countries, and to draft long-term strategies in order to guarantee reconstruction, institution-building and sustainable development. As said, this new body represents an innovation to the UN's traditional approach to conflict situations for the first time, there is a single organ charged with a mission that relies on a complex of capacities and expertise which used to be of many UN subjects' concern, without any substantial coordination set out. For this reason, the commission can benefit from all the UN experience on such matters as conflict prevention, mediation, peacekeeping, respect for human rights, the rule of law, humanitarian assistance, reconstruction and long-term development. Obviously, as it is an advisory body, its natural role is that of proposing action patterns to be followed by the countries involved in the peace-building operations, and it is not entitled to take effective action. Another important task the PBC is supposed to fulfill is of ensuring actual funding both for early reconstruction activities and for longer-term strategies. This last mission is aimed at fixing the previous general praxis, according to which Countries were often more disposable to engage themselves to offer resources for short-term interventions (mainly devoted to peace-keeping operations) than to keep their promises of supporting peace-building operations once the conflict had been soothed and the hype on it had ceased to affect international public opinion.


The Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO)

Thi
Peacebuilding Support Office
was envisaged as part of the founding resolutions from the Security Council and General Assembly that established th
Peacebuilding Commission
in order “to establish, within the Secretariat and from within existing resources, a small peacebuilding support office staffed by qualified experts to assist and support the Peacebuilding Commission and drawing from the best expertise available.” The PBSO also administers th
Peacebuilding Fund
and provides support to the Secretary General's efforts regarding the coordination of peacebuilding activities. In September 2014, the Secretary-General appointe
Oscar Fernandez-Taranco
from Argentina, as Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support. The PBSO comprises three branches: the Peacebuilding Commission Support Branch, the Policy, Planning and Application Branch and the Financing for Peacebuilding Branch.


The Peacebuilding Commission takes its first steps

In its first year of operations, the Commission focused its attention on
Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...
and
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...
. In Burundi, the PBC and the Government of Burundi agreed on four critical peacebuilding areas to form the basis of a strategic framework: promoting
good governance Good governance is the process of measuring how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources and guarantee the realization of human rights in a manner essentially free of abuse and corruption and with due regard for t ...
, strengthening the
rule of law The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...
, reform of the security sector, and ensuring community recovery with a special focus on youth. In Sierra Leone, the PBC and national partners identified reform of the justice and security sectors, youth employment and empowerment, and capacity-building in governance institutions as key priorities. Effective partnerships between national and international actors helped ensure that recent elections in Sierra Leone were conducted in a peaceful, orderly and genuinely contested manner. The 2010 elections in Burundi were more problematic. Allegations of fraud in an earlier local pol
marred the June 2010 presidential election
in which incumbent Pierre Nkurunziza was the only candidate after the country's opposition parties pulled out of the campaign. According to the constituting resolutions of the PBC, the further inclusion of a situation in the PBC agenda, which is also part of the Security Council's agenda, would need formal action by the members of the council. In this regard, the council has adopted the practice of issuing a letter to the president of the PBSO to request the consideration of other countries as part of the PBC agenda. Once a country's situation has been put under the consideration of the PBC, it should remain as part of the agenda for several years, or until the peacebuilding phase is considered to be completed. Currently, the agenda of the PBC includes the situation in Burundi, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and the Central African Republic. The six cases in the agenda of the PBC and the overall progress achieved since the establishment of the Commission reveal the complexity in relying on peacebuilding efforts, as well as the coexistence of several factors within this process, including the ability of the PBC and its different Configurations to engage with the host government, as well as civil society and important stakeholders on the ground, in the conduction and implementation of coordinated actions. Besides, there are several factors largely dependent on the Security Council's substantive engagement in each situation, including the need for regular interactions with the PBC and its Configurations.


The Peacebuilding Commission's expanding role in the UN system


PGA High-level dialogue on sustainable development and sustaining peace in 2017

In January 2017, the President of the General Assembly convened a high-level dialogue on sustainable development and sustaining peace, which brought together the President of the General Assembly, the President of the Security Council, the President of the Economic and Social Council and the Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission for the first time to promote coordination and coherence across peace and development efforts. The Human Rights Council also considered the links between peacebuilding and human rights at its thirty-fourth session. Such initiatives have built upon the regular exchanges held by the Peacebuilding Commission with the Economic and Social Council and the Security Council.


PGA high-level meeting on peacebuilding and sustaining peace in 2018

The President of the General Assembly will convene the High-Level Meeting on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace on 24 and 25 April 2018. Briefing on the high-level event to the Peacebuilding Commission, the President of the General Assembly stressed that "Again and again, we have reaffirmed the role of the PBC as one of the UN’s most valuable tools for Sustaining Peace. This was clear, during the review of the Peacebuilding Architecture, in 2015. It was clear, through the adoption of the twin resolutions on Sustaining Peace, a year later. And, it is clear, again, from the recent report of the Secretary-General."


An Independent Look at the Peacebuilding Commission

In 2010, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the Stanley Foundation sent an independent journalist to visit the PBC's four agenda countries. The journalistic investigation suggested that the PBC's greatest strength was in its creation and execution of a political mandate for its work. Among its weaknesses were in its open-ended funding mechanism.


See also

* United Nations Secretary-General's Peacebuilding Fund
United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office


References


External links


Peacebuilding on the UN websitePeacebuilding on the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting website
{{authority control United Nations General Assembly subsidiary organs United Nations Security Council subsidiary organs Peace organizations