CONFLICT PREVENTION

Development and Institutionalization through United

Nations
EVOLUTION OF CONFLICT PREVENTION
 Concept of preventive diplomacy in UN Charter:
peacekeeping operations and asserting influence on
states for immediate end of warring activities
(peacemaking)
 31 January 1992 --- meeting of UNSC

 Expansion of securing peace and human rights

AGENDA FOR PEACE: PREVENTIVE
DIPLOMACY, PEACEMAKING AND
PEACE KEEPING
 Boutros Boutros-Ghali --- An Agenda for Peace in 1992
after the UNSC Summit
 UN Charter assures "social progress and better standards
of life in larger freedom".
 He expanded the horizon of preventive diplomacy and
added the concept of ‘post-conflict peace-building’ in the
report.
CONFLICT EMERGING TRENDS IN
POST-COLD WAR ERA
 new phase of security studies; from bi-polar to multi-
polar world
 Ethnic conflicts, racism, civil internecine struggles,
secessionist movements, sovereignty. territorial integrity
issues etc
 Civil wars --- more damages, civilian targets, mass
murders, genocide etc
CONFLICT MANAGING
TECHNIQUES IN POST 1991
WORLD ORDER
 Preventive diplomacy
 Peacekeeping operations

 Peacemaking efforts (carrot n stick policies, economic

and military sanctions, financial aids for development
etc)
AGENDA FOR PEACE REPORT
- To seek to identify at the earliest possible stage
situations that could produce conflict, and to try
through diplomacy to remove the sources of danger
before violence results;
- Where conflict erupts, to engage in peacemaking
aimed at resolving the issues that have led to
conflict;
Through peace-keeping, to work to preserve peace,
however fragile, where fighting has been halted and
to assist in implementing agreements achieved by
the peacemakers;
 - And in the largest sense, to address the deepest causes
of conflict: economic despair, social injustice and
political oppression. It is possible to discern an
increasingly common moral perception that spans the
world's nations and peoples, and which is finding
expression in international laws, many owing their
genesis to the work of this Organization.
DEFINITIONS ACCORDING TO
AGENDA FOR PEACE
- Preventive diplomacy is action to prevent
disputes from arising between parties, to prevent
existing disputes from escalating into conflicts
and to limit the spread of the latter when they
occur.
- Peacemaking is action to bring hostile parties
to agreement, essentially through such peaceful
means as those foreseen in Chapter VI of the
Charter of the United Nations.
 - Peace-keeping is the deployment of a United Nations
presence in the field, hitherto with the consent of all the
parties concerned, normally involving United Nations
military and/or police personnel and frequently civilians
as well. Peace-keeping is a technique that expands the
possibilities for both the prevention of conflict and the
making of peace.
 post-conflict peace-building - action to identify and
support structures which will tend to strengthen and
solidify peace in order to avoid a relapse into conflict.
LINK AMONG THE FOUR CONCEPTS
 Preventive diplomacy seeks to resolve disputes before
violence breaks out; peacemaking and peace-keeping are
required to halt conflicts and preserve peace once it is
attained. If successful, they strengthen the opportunity
for post-conflict peace-building, which can prevent the
recurrence of violence among nations and peoples.
PD ACTORS UNDER UN
 Preventive diplomacy may be performed by the
Secretary-General personally or through senior staff or
specialized agencies and programmes, by the Security
Council or the General Assembly, and by regional
organizations in cooperation with the United Nations.
INSTITUTIONALIZED MEASURES OF CP
UNDER UN
 Preventive diplomacy requires measures to create
confidence; it needs early warning based on information
gathering and informal or formal fact-finding; it may
also involve preventive deployment and, in some
situations, demilitarized zones.
 Systematic exchange of military missions, formation of
regional or subregional risk reduction centres,
arrangements for the free flow of information, including
the monitoring of regional arms agreements
FACT-FINDING
 Preventive steps must be based upon timely and accurate
knowledge of the facts. Beyond this, an understanding of
developments and global trends, based on sound
analysis, is required. And the willingness to take
appropriate preventive action is essential. Given the
economic and social roots of many potential conflicts,
the information needed by the United Nations now must
encompass economic and social trends as well as
political developments that may lead to dangerous
tensions.
 An increased resort to fact-finding is needed, in
accordance with the Charter, initiated either by the
Secretary-General, to enable him to meet his
responsibilities under the Charter, including Article 99,
or by the Security Council or the General Assembly.
Various forms may be employed selectively as the
situation requires. A request by a State for the sending of
a United Nations fact-finding mission to its territory
should be considered without undue delay.
 Formal fact-finding can be mandated by the Security
Council or by the General Assembly, either of which
may elect to send a mission under its immediate
authority or may invite the Secretary-General to take the
necessary steps, including the designation of a special
envoy. In addition to collecting information on which a
decision for further action can be taken, such a mission
can in some instances help to defuse a dispute by its
presence, indicating to the parties that the Organization,
and in particular the Security Council, is actively seized
of the matter as a present or potential threat to
international security.
EARLY WARNING
 UN had been developing its early warning system for
environmental threats, the risk of nuclear accident,
natural disasters, mass movements of populations, the
threat of famine and the spread of disease.
 Agenda for Peace emphasized on regional arrangements
for disseminating the information and mechanism of
EWS to developing states so to prevent the conflict.
PREVENTIVE DEPLOYMENT
 In conditions of national crisis there could be preventive
deployment at the request of the Government or all
parties concerned, or with their consent; in inter-State
disputes such deployment could take place when two
countries feel that a United Nations presence on both
sides of their border can discourage hostilities;
furthermore, preventive deployment could take place
when a country feels threatened and requests the
deployment of an appropriate United Nations presence
along its side of the border alone.
 In conditions of crisis within a country, when the
Government requests or all parties consent, preventive
deployment could help in a number of ways to alleviate
suffering and to limit or control violence.
 Humanitarian assistance, impartially provided, could be
of critical importance; assistance in maintaining security,
whether through military, police or civilian personnel,
could save lives and develop conditions of safety in
which negotiations can be held.
 the United Nations could also help in conciliation efforts
if this should be the wish of the parties. In certain
circumstances, the United Nations may well need to
draw upon the specialized skills and resources of various
parts of the United Nations system; such operations may
also on occasion require the participation of non-
governmental organizations.
 In these situations of internal crisis the United Nations
will need to respect the sovereignty of the State; to do
otherwise would not be in accordance with the
understanding of Member States in accepting the
principles of the Charter.
 In inter-State disputes, when both parties agree, if the
Security Council concludes that the likelihood of
hostilities between neighbouring countries could be
removed by the preventive deployment of a United
Nations presence on the territory of each State, such
action should be taken.
 In cases where one nation fears a cross-border attack, if
the Security Council concludes that a United Nations
presence on one side of the border, with the consent only
of the requesting country, would serve to deter conflict,
preventive deployment should take place.
DEMILITARIZED ZONES
 In the past, demilitarized zones have been established by
agreement of the parties at the conclusion of a conflict. In
addition to the deployment of United Nations personnel in
such zones as part of peace-keeping operations, consideration
should now be given to the usefulness of such zones as a form
of preventive deployment, on both sides of a border, with the
agreement of the two parties, as a means of separating
potential belligerents, or on one side of the line, at the request
of one party, for the purpose of removing any pretext for
attack. Demilitarized zones would serve as symbols of the
international community's concern that conflict be prevented.