VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUCNDT #0132/01 0461415
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 151415Z FEB 07
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1341
INFO RUCNUNP/UNPBC COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000132 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPKO SOCI UNGA EFIN UN
SUBJECT: SECURITY COUNCIL AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY DISCUSS 
PEACEBUILDING COMMISSION 
 
¶1. SUMMARY:  The Security Council and the General Assembly 
held separate sessions on January 30 and February 6, 2007 
respectively to discuss post-conflict peacebuilding.  In both 
venues, speakers urged the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) to 
focus on work in its country-specific format where it is 
tasked with providing targeted peacebuilding advice to Sierra 
Leone and Burundi, the first two countries under PBC 
consideration. In the Security Council discussion, there was 
general agreement on the need for the PBC to interact more 
extensively with the Security Council, providing 
recommendations and background information as needed on 
countries and peacekeeping operations falling under the 
purview of the Security Council. Speakers also urged the PBC 
to include representatives from the International Monetary 
Fund and the World Bank in all PBC meetings.  The Democratic 
Republic of the Congo, Timor-Leste, and Haiti were mentioned 
as possible candidates for future consideration by the PBC. 
In the subsequent General Assembly discussion, speakers from 
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries took a harder line in 
insisting that the PBC Organizational Committee needed to 
regularly meet to oversee activity in the country-specific 
format. END SUMMARY 
 
¶2.  For a January 30 Security Council open discussion of the 
Peacebuilding Commission's first year of activity, Security 
Council members were joined by the President of the Economic 
and Social Council (Lithuania), the Chair of the 
Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission 
(Angola), and 18 other UN members. Assistant Secretary 
Carolyn McAskie (Peacebuilding Support Office) made a 
statement.  The IMF and World Bank also spoke. 
 
¶3.  Speakers urged the Peacebuilding Commission to focus on 
work within the country-specific format in order to provide 
value-added recommendations on peacebuilding programs to 
countries under consideration by the PBC (currently, Sierra 
Leone and Burundi). They asked the PBC to further refine the 
peacebuilding priorities presented by Sierra Leone and 
Burundi in the two country-specific meetings held so far, and 
then play a role in mobilizing resources to meet those 
priorities.  Some speakers suggested that the PBC should 
monitor progress, while coordinating a coherent response 
across the UN system, donors, and the International Financial 
Institutions (IFIs). 
 
¶4.  Members suggested a variety of improvements to the PBC's 
current procedures.  Slovakia called for the formation of 
informal, thematically-organized working groups that would 
incorporate the views of donors working in the field, the 
host government, and "best practices" from elsewhere as 
appropriate.  Several speakers suggested that the 
Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) should play a role in 
drafting program papers and technical advice to the 
country-specific format. Nigeria, Egypt, and Jamaica called 
for more visits by PBC members to countries under 
consideration. The UK asked for more structure, including a 
fixed calendar of meetings, thorough preparation prior to 
country-specific meetings, "frank dialogue" with the host 
government, and "honest scrutiny" of the host government's 
peacebuilding strategy. In order to formally address these 
issues, a minority of speakers favored re-opening the PBC's 
Rules of Procedure and holding more frequent Organizational 
Committee meeting. However, other members, including the 
United States, urged the PBC to minimize debate on procedural 
issues and devote more energy to bringing value to 
peacebuilding activity in countries under consideration. The 
US interventions in both discussions centered on the need for 
"pragmatic, action-oriented, and country-specific approaches 
to the problem of post-conflict peacebuilding." 
 
¶5.  Speakers reviewed the status of Security Council 
interaction with the Peacebuilding Commission. The majority 
welcomed the Security Council debate and an upcoming General 
Assembly discussion of the PBC.  Speakers called for the PBC 
to provide background information and advice to the Security 
Council on countries under consideration, and conduct 
long-term monitoring of post-conflict situations with a view 
to informing the Security Council when the PBC found that a 
country was in danger of relapsing into conflict.  However, 
several NAM-aligned country representatives stated that 
Security Council deliberations on the PBC were "premature" 
and called for more frequent meetings of the PBC 
Organizational Committee to discuss PBC interaction with 
other UN organs. 
 
¶6.  During the day's discussion, three countries were 
mentioned as possible candidates for consideration by the 
PBC; the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Timor-Leste, and 
Haiti. Comment:  Of the three, the PBC is likely to take up 
Timor-Leste this year. The DRC is seen by most PBC members as 
too large and unsettled for effective PBC consideration, and 
Haiti is considered to be reluctant to apply for PBC 
 
 
consideration at this point. End Comment. 
 
¶7.  The Security Council discussion was followed on February 
6 by a similar General Assembly event, largely because of NAM 
insistence on recognizing the PBC's hybrid status as a 
General Assembly/Security Council creation through parallel 
events in the two organs.  Most delegates were content to 
recycle the points made in the Security Council. However, NAM 
statements on the primacy of the Organizational Committee in 
the PBC seemed to harden between sessions. 
 
¶8. Comment: The Security Council and General Assembly 
sessions illustrated how PBC members continue to be uncertain 
about the exact nature of the PBC's mission.  While the 
discussion produced little clarity,  PBC Chairs are picking 
up the pace in the expectation that country-specific work 
will resolve some of the uncertainty.  Within the 
country-specific format, Norway and The Netherlands, the 
chairs for Burundi and Sierra Leone, have introduced a 
crowded schedule of working group meetings on specific 
peacebuilding issues. End Comment 
WOLFF