European Peace Institute / News

Figure 1. Past and current parallel forces around the world (Click for full graphic)

Figure 2. Timeline of parallel force and their type (Click for full graphic)

Since the end of the Cold War, the UN Security Council has authorized or recognized the deployment of more than forty parallel forces that operate alongside UN peace operations. As the Security Council has deployed peace operations in increasingly non-permissive environments, the division of labor between UN missions and these parallel forces has blurred, and their goals have sometimes come into conflict. This raises the question of whether they are partners or competitors.

This report examines the missions that have operated in parallel to UN peace operations to identify how to strengthen these partnerships in the future. It analyzes and categorizes the types of parallel forces that have been deployed and examines the rationales for deploying them. It also looks at strategic and operational challenges, including the challenges unique to peace operations operating alongside a counterterrorism force. Finally, drawing on lessons from past and current parallel deployments, it offers recommendations for member states, the Security Council, and the UN Secretariat. These include:

• Strengthening coordination of assessments, planning, and application of UN standards: The UN and actors deploying parallel forces should conduct joint assessments and planning when deploying or reconfiguring missions. The UN Security Council should also engage more regularly with parallel forces and encourage the continued development of human rights compliance frameworks for them.
• Clarifying roles, responsibilities, and areas of operation: Peace operations and parallel forces should clearly delineate their responsibilities and areas of operation, assess the risks of collocating, and improve strategic communications with the local population. The Security Council should also continue to put in place mechanisms to strengthen the accountability of parallel forces, especially when peace operations are providing support that could contribute to counterterrorism operations.

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The United Nations agendas for Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) and for Protection of Civilians (POC) both deal with protecting vulnerable populations. The comparison of these two agendas and opportunities to enhance protection were the focus of a November 1st IPI-Canada roundtable discussion, held under the Chatham House rule of non-attribution.

Discussants expressed concern that protection of women from sexual violence has been prioritized over other forms of gendered violence, such as female genital mutilation, child marriage, sexual violence against men and LGBTQ communities, trafficking, and domestic violence. One reason, agreed participants, is that gender-based violence is chronically underfunded. In addition, women are often appointed as gender experts solely because of their sex.

The experts lamented the fact that women tend to be seen only as victims of violence and not as agents of protection from violence. To overcome this barrier, speakers highlighted the need for more female uniformed and civilian personnel on the ground in peacekeeping missions with POC mandates and involved in developing POC strategy. Even so, they noted, women’s participation is often treated with a tokenistic, “tick the box” approach.

In order to insure that peacekeeping missions better and more safely engage communities, especially with women, participants agreed that accountability measures in peacekeeping should be strengthened, and that it was necessary to embrace a wider understanding of “protection.” One way to do this, they said, was to frame accountability around the UN Sustainable Development Goals, since UN member state governments have made public commitments to concrete goals and indicators and to carry out certain gender-sensitive measures of protection.

To truly mainstream these concepts, discussants suggested it would be useful to conduct local analysis in conflict communities and examine intercommunal conflicts. Speakers said that the strategic integration points of the WPS and POC agendas were climate change, gender-based violence, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The second session of the workshop focused on research questions. Participants pointed out that gender considerations are often an afterthought in peace operations, and explored ways to implement POC that do not reinforce the stereotype of women as victims. They pointed out programs that have been working well and recommended monitoring and scaling up these efforts.

One question that arose was whether domestic violence should be addressed in POC mandates. Discussants argued that intimate partner violence is not unrelated to conflict, and that it must be included in gender-based violence analysis and action. However, doubts were raised as to whether military and police personnel, who are the primary actors in peacekeeping, were the right people to address this intimate type of violence.

Finally, participants discussed how best to incorporate male victims in protection peacekeeping mandates and pointed out that because of patriarchal systems of power, the threats men and boys face are under-reported and protection of men and boys receives less attention. Discussants highlighted the fact that “gender” is not specific to women and that to say, “we need more women in peace operations to carry out the WPS agenda” takes the onus off of men to implement the WPS agenda and reinforces the stereotype of women as victims and men as perpetrators of violence.

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IPI President Terje Rød-Larsen was received on October 29th by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa at Sakhir Palace, who welcomed advanced cooperation between the Kingdom of Bahrain and IPI. Mr. Rød-Larsen was accompanied by IPI Chief of Staff Camilla Reksten-Monsen, IPI MENA Director Nejib Friji, and IPI MENA Policy Analyst Dalya Al Alawi.

On October 30th, Mr. Rød-Larsen was received by the Bahrain Speaker of Parliament Fawzia Zainal. Parliament Members (MP) Mohammed Essa Al-Abbasi, Chairman of the Committee on Legislative and Legal Affairs, MP Ahmed Sabah Al-Salloum President of the Committee on Financial and Economic Affairs, and MP Ali Mohamed Ishaqi Member of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee were in attendance.

Deputy Prime Minister H.H. Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa received Mr. Rød-Larsen on October 30th to discuss IPI’s pivotal role in supporting multilateralism and efforts in strengthening the pillars of security and stability.

Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa received Mr. Rød-Larsen on October 30th and spoke on forms of cooperation to reinforce international peace and security. Public Security Chief Major General Tariq Al Hassan was also in attendance.

Mr. Rød-Larsen had a meeting with Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa on October 30th, where they spoke on IPI’s role in reinforcing coexistence and sustainable peace in the MENA region and beyond.

H.H. Sheikh Faisal bin Rashid Al Khalifa, Vice President of the Supreme Council for Environment (SCE) received Mr. Rød-Larsen on October 27th. The meeting delved into SCE-IPI partnership on sustainable development with a focus on water challenges in the MENA region and beyond.

H.E. Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Minister of Oil met with Mr. Rød-Larsen on October 27th to discuss mutual cooperation and partnerships on sustainable development in the region with a focus on clean energy.

On the same day, Mr. Rød-Larsen had a meeting with Electricity and Water Affairs Minister Wael bin Nasser Al Mubarak, where efforts to sustain the availability of electricity and maintain economic growth in line with Bahrain’s 2030 Economic vision was discussed.

Related coverage:
Bahrain TV 7pm News on October 29 (coverage between 6:42-7:47)

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The international community’s role in supporting women as vital stakeholders in an inclusive and enduring peace in Afghanistan was the subject of an October 30th IPI policy forum cosponsored by Cordaid, the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, and the NYU Center for Global Affairs.

Rina Amiri, Senior Fellow at the NYU center and longtime expert on peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, said that while the world’s weariness with the ongoing Afghan war was speeding up people’s eagerness to come up with a way to end it, it was also resulting in concessions being made on earlier promises of inclusion. “Women’s rights and inclusion has moved from an absolute priority of the international community to something that is relegated just to inter-Afghan talks,” she said.

In light of this, she asked, “What are the arguments that we need to make that we’re not making, how can we move from lip service to genuine commitment, what are the ways that we should be thinking about inclusion and process design?”

IPI Senior Fellow Sarah Taylor spoke of a disturbing discordance between the pledges of UN member states to the women, peace and security agenda that she heard voiced in the Security Council debate on the subject the day before and the reality that women are still being kept from positions of power and influence 19 years after the passage of the landmark resolution 1325. She alluded to the example of the work done in Sudan by women “putting their bodies on the line, breaking curfews, braving tear gas yet still excluded from the discussions that determine the future of their communities.”

Storai Tapesh, Deputy Executive Director, Afghan Women’s Network, said that recent peace negotiations between the Taliban and the United States in the Qatari capital Doha allowed for more women’s participation than in past talks but still did not attract the necessary support from the international community. “We saw the added value of women during the recent dialogues in Doha,” she said. “It was us, the women of Afghanistan, who were putting important issues on the table. As opposed to the men, we were not negotiating out of a position of self-interest but pushing the real issues such as human rights, the red lines of the constitution and the need for an immediate ceasefire.”

Though those talks have now stalled, Ms. Tapesh said the women of Afghanistan are still “very much committed” to them and want to see them resumed and “facilitated” by the international community. Clarifying the kind of support they needed, she said, “Afghan women do not want you to fight our battles; we need support for our voices and space to advocate for peace.”

Testifying to the importance of women’s inclusion to the sustainability of peace processes, Karen Pierce, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, said, “You cannot actually build a truly prosperous society that enables any country to realize its full potential if you exclude some 50% of the population from the economic and legal life of the country, never mind the social. More than half of all peace processes collapse within five years if they don’t have sustainable provisions, and those sustainable provisions have been shown in well-documented evidence to include gender and women’s provisions.”

Ambassador Pierce was asked by the discussion moderator, Jake Sherman, director of IPI’s Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations, about how to balance the push for women’s rights with the overall push for a peace accord without one jeopardizing the other. “You must have some very robust clauses about human rights and women’s rights, but I don’t know if in a negotiation with an informal organization such as the Taliban, it is good to go in loudly with your red lines,” she said. Instead, she explained, “the point at which you ask for the things you really need is at the end when peace is in sight.” Signaling the critical nature of this sequencing, she warned, “When we sacrifice the long term goal for short term expediency, we end up regretting that quickly and find ourselves back at the table negotiating peace again.”

Ms. Pierce acknowledged that it was particularly difficult to introduce the subject of women’s rights into conversations with the Taliban, a group notorious for its overt sexism and violence against women. “But the fact that is a difficult argument isn’t an argument for not making it,” she said. She added that those who counsel taking up the subject only “at the pace that the Taliban want” are ignoring evidence of women’s rights having been brought into the process successfully with tact, good timing and persistence. “You do it incrementally, you do it gradually, but above all, you do it steadily, don’t go backward.”

Mahbouba Seraj, a member of the Afghan Women’s Network, urged the international community to adopt a principled position on Afghanistan without regard to pleasing one side or the other. “Do not worry about the Taliban or Trump, but take a stance because if you don’t do that and stay on the basis of being wishy washy with the Taliban, then they are going to take advantage of that.”

Teresa Whitfield, Director, Policy and Mediation Division, UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, said that actions to include women in peace processes had to go beyond the numbers. “We need to normalize the process that women have substantive contributions in peace processes and not just that there are two women at the table,” she said. She asserted that obtaining respect for Afghan women’s rights would require a “creative” approach, given the nature of the Taliban. “The Taliban doesn’t include women in leadership so we cannot recruit and include them through their political or military power,” she said. Among the alternatives from her office’s experience that she suggested were advisory boards, gender subcommittees, women lawyers, broad consultations with civil society, online platforms, and social media information sharing.

In conclusion, Ms. Whitfield stressed, “The absolutely fundamental need for those of us who represent the international community and are on the outside of conflicts is to put in the legwork, the analysis, the research, the knowledge, and always focus on harnessing international forces. The demand for Afghan women’s rights comes from Afghan women, and that’s what needs to be represented in some shape or form at the table in the peace process.”

Figure 1. The AMISOM model (Click for full graphic)

Figure 2. AMISOM’s force generation challenges (Click for full graphic)

Deployed to Mogadishu in March 2007, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) operates through a complicated and extensive system of partnerships. This has been referred to as the “AMISOM model” of “partnership peacekeeping.” While this specific configuration of forces and mechanisms is unlikely to be repeated, AMISOM remains the longest-standing case of a peace enforcement operation built on such international partnerships.

If the AU and UN are going to continue deploying missions into such difficult environments, AMISOM’s experience offers lessons for how partnership peacekeeping can work better. This report summarizes the main operational-level lessons across seven themes: force generation, logistics, security sector reform, protection of civilians, strategic communications, stabilization, and exit strategy. Many of these lessons have not been truly learned, internalized, and acted upon by the actors and organizations in question.

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The UN Security Council adopted the landmark resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security (WPS) in 2000 and since then, the international community has made notable strides toward implementing the WPS agenda through member state commitments. However, in recent years, the world has witnessed backsliding on these commitments and a backlash against robust attempts at women’s inclusion and gender parity.

On October 29th, experts on WPS gathered at an IPI roundtable to launch and discuss the findings of a new report from Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS), “The 10 Steps: Turning Women, Peace and Security Commitments to Implementation.” The report includes recommendations for action on women, peace, and security as the 20th anniversary of resolution 1325 approaches.

The “10 Steps” report is the product of consultations with over 200 organizations in conflict-affected states. It recommends precise and actionable steps for realizing the WPS agenda, with a particular focus on the role of civil society. GAPS and its partners found that commitments on Women, Peace and Security are “vast and comprehensive,” but that “in practice this has not translated into the inclusion of gender perspectives and women and girls’ rights in policy and programming.”

Participants began the discussion by addressing the current state of the WPS agenda, especially noting the regression on gender parity and women’s inclusion in formal peace processes. Despite considerable progress on women’s inclusion in peacekeeping, discussants lamented that “it has been easier to get women into military, police, and peacekeeping forces on the ground than to get women into negotiating rooms.”

When women are excluded from peace processes, it was noted, the resulting peace agreements include few or no gender provisions. Accordingly, the WPS agenda has aimed to improve gender inclusion in peace negotiations in order to strengthen the outcomes of such processes. Initially, some progress was made. Before resolution 1325, only 11% of peace agreements made any references to women and gender, but in the following 14 years, this number went up to 27%. However, since 2014, the number has dramatically decreased.

Some participants called for women’s increased “meaningful participation” in the face of such discouraging statistics, but others stressed that the term “meaningful participation” is itself far too vague. Suggestions included making calls for “consequential participation,” or even “feminist participation.” Irrespective of the terminology they chose to employ, many agreed that greater women’s participation is greatly needed.

The roundtable then shifted its focus toward ways to engage civil society in implementing the WPS agenda, as the GAPS “10 Steps” report stressed. Participants acknowledged that governments are not the only drivers of the agenda, and civil society continues to play a vital and integrated role in its actualization. Civil society provides insight that guides state action, and it helps governments stay in touch with challenges to implementation on the ground. Moreover, where state action is often slowed by bureaucratic processes and political tensions, civil society helps to push the agenda along and accelerate progress.

When considering what the next steps member states should take on WPS, participants called for action on an array of issues, including the need for gender-conflict analysis, addressing violence against women, and changing social norms around gender.

The work remaining for the international community, participants argued, is ensuring accountability to the commitments outlined in the nine WPS resolutions that have been adopted by the Security Council. Though the agenda is often thought of as a “gender issue” or “security challenge,” it has much broader implications than these characterizations suggest.

“We are all guardians of this incredible WPS agenda,” agreed participants, and its realization will require creativity and widespread action.

From left: Lauri Mälksoo, Professor of International Law, University of Tartu, Estonia; Adam Lupel, IPI Vice President; and Kristi Raik, Director of the Foreign Policy Institute

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In October, Estonia and Finland brought IPI Vice President Adam Lupel to two separate forums to discuss the sometimes challenging but critical role small states play in policymaking and global affairs.

In April 2019, Dr. Lupel and Lauri Mälksoo, Professor of International Law at the University of Tartu in Estonia, published a policy paper entitled, “A Necessary Voice: Small States, International Law, and the UN Security Council.” The paper concluded that small states on the Security Council are well-placed to provide an important, credible voice with moral authority to remind all member states of their obligations under international law.

Dr. Lupel’s first stop was the Estonian Academy of Science in Tallinn on October 29th, where he delivered remarks during a half-day event. “Recent years have witnessed several cases where small states have driven debates on the Security Council defending international law and the rule based order, in particular international humanitarian law,” he said. The event featured Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu, and State Secretary Taimar Peterkop, along with academics from Columbia University, the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, and others.

As an example, Dr. Lupel provided this: “In early 2016, the small state of New Zealand (population under 5 million) initiated discussion on a possible Security Council resolution to help reinforce that bedrock of IHL by convening a multi-stakeholder round table at its UN mission. Soon, a draft resolution was being negotiated by five penholders from a diverse range of countries: Egypt, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, and Uruguay. After extensive negotiations, the final resolution served to clearly remind member states that ‘intentionally directed attacks’ on health facilities and medical workers during armed conflict are war crimes.

“From a negotiation standpoint, the resolution was a tremendous success. It was adopted unanimously, with eighty-five member states as co-sponsors—spearheaded by the bridge-building diplomacy of two small states in partnership with others.”

Dr. Lupel then went on to Helsinki, where on October 30th, about 50 participants from a broad cross-section of the diplomatic community attended a Finland launch of the small states paper, where he delivered an expanded version of his Tallinn talk followed by an extensive Q&A session. The event was moderated by Anna Salovaara, Director of the Unit for UN and General Global Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.

Nineteen years after the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which reaffirmed the important role of women in peace and security, the international community is reflecting on the impact of this commitment and how to fulfill the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda. IPI’s WPS program hosted a staff meeting with the US State Department’s civil society delegation of African women leaders on October 28th during the week of the Security Council Open Debate on WPS to exchange expertise on what needs to be done in different country contexts to promote peace and security through a gender lens.

IPI Senior Fellow Sarah Taylor described IPI’s research on the status of the Resolution 1325. The women, from 18 countries, also shared reflections on their country situations, and raised particular issues that were specific to each context such as terrorism by Boko Haram or the misinformation that has affected the conflict in Mali.

In attendance from the US State Department’s civil society delegation were women from:

• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Central African Republic
• Congo
• Ghana
• Kenya
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Mozambique
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Rwanda
• South Sudan
• The Gambia
• Uganda
• Zambia

 

As the twentieth anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace, and security (WPS) approaches, the ad hoc nature of and limited accountability for implementation of the WPS agenda are undermining its full promise. This is despite increasing recognition that efforts to build and sustain peace are dependent upon the full participation of women and respect for their rights. There is thus a need for concerted, strategic commitment to addressing the remaining gaps in implementation of the WPS agenda.

This paper identifies opportunities for the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of Resolution 1325, particularly for the UN Security Council, its member states, and the UN system. It builds on IPI’s scene-setting issue brief “The Global Pushback on Women’s Rights: The State of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda.” The paper concludes with several steps the UN and the international community can take to support substantive progress on WPS:

• Use creative mechanisms to increase women’s participation: The multilateral system can support new initiatives such as the regional women mediator networks.
• Leverage the tools of the UN Security Council: The council should consistently request gender-sensitive analysis and recommendations, mainstream the WPS agenda across all policies, and better integrate the work of the Informal Expert Group on WPS into its daily work.
• Significantly strengthen accountability: Increasing accountability requires changing the political calculus for engaging on the WPS agenda, particularly at the national level.
• Move the focus to the field: Dialogue around WPS needs to shift from UN headquarters in New York to focus more on the countries and regions grappling with conflict.
• Increase financing: Donors should increase their financial commitments to the WPS agenda and ensure funding supports long-term peacebuilding efforts.

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The past year has seen a reduction of organized violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) and progress in advancing the political process and restoring and extending state authority. However, challenges remain under each of these objectives, including persistent low-level insecurity, violations of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in CAR (APPR), and difficulty redeploying civilian state administrators outside of Bangui. Moreover, almost no progress has been made on addressing the underlying drivers of violence, including challenges related to identity, citizenship, and inclusion.

In this context, the International Peace Institute (IPI), the Stimson Center, and Security Council Report organized a workshop on September 10, 2019, to discuss MINUSCA’s mandate and political strategy. This workshop offered a platform for member states and UN actors to develop a shared understanding and common strategic assessment of the situation in CAR. The discussion was intended to help the Security Council make informed decisions with respect to the strategic orientation, prioritization, and sequencing of the mission’s mandate ahead of its renewal in November 2019.

Participants agreed that MINUSCA’s current mandate and posture have generally given the mission the flexibility it needs to respond to evolving conflict dynamics and political developments. Most therefore did not envision large changes to MINUSCA’s mandate but suggested small adjustments. These included authorizing MINUSCA to support the APPR and reinforce the political process by engaging on broader reconciliation and inclusion efforts; strengthening the mission’s mandate to restore and extend state authority; mandating MINUSCA to support elections; and authorizing MINUSCA to coordinate international partners in CAR.

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(Click to jump to interactive map below)

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Organizational diagram of the UN-AU partnership (Click for full graphic)

The United Nations and the African Union (AU) have worked in tandem since the AU’s establishment in 2002. During this time, their partnership has evolved to focus increasingly on conflict prevention and crisis management, culminating in the 2017 Joint UN-AU Framework for Enhanced Partnership in Peace and Security. But while the organizations’ collaboration on peacekeeping has been extensively studied, other dimensions of the partnership warrant a closer look to understand how to foster political coherence and operational coordination.

This report, done in partnership with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), therefore considers the evolution of the strategic partnership between the UN and the AU, with a focus on their approach to conflict prevention and crisis management. It looks at this partnership at the member-state level in the UN Security Council and AU Peace and Security Council, as well as at the operational level between various UN and AU entities. It also assesses the partnership across several thematic issues, including the AU’s Silencing the Guns initiative; mediation; women, peace, and security; electoral support; peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction and development; and youth, peace, and security.

Based on this analysis, the paper offers several recommendations to guide UN and AU stakeholders in improving cooperation. These include strengthening council-to-council engagement, working toward a collective approach to conflict prevention and crisis management, creating a dedicated team within the AU Peace and Security Department to support the partnership, better aligning work on peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction and development, building momentum on the AU’s Silencing the Guns initiative, and expanding diplomatic capacities to support the partnership.

UN, AU, and REC/RM peace operations, liaison offices, and peace and development advisers (as of July 2019) (Click on each country for operations’ details. Best viewed on desktops.) a img {/**remove hover border**/ display:block; Margin: 0 auto; } a[href$="pdf"]:last-of-type:after { /* don't display "PDF" after the links in the margin */ display: none!important; }

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IPI MENA Director Nejib Friji and H.H Shaikh Faisal bin Rashid bin Isa Al Khalifa, Vice President of the Supreme Council for Environment (SCE) discussed the water challenges in the MENA region, in particular the issues of water scarcity and its threat to regional peace and stability on October 17th.

Both parties pledged cooperation in those fields through sustainable development and consolidation with international institutions and organizations to promote water diplomacy locally, regionally and internationally. Bahrain’s United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Director Dr. Hashim Hussein also attended the meeting and pledged support to this endeavor.

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On October 3rd, IPI commemorated the end of the event-filled high-level week beginning the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly with its traditional “Sigh of Relief” party. The guest of honor was the newly installed President of the GA, Tijani Muhammad-Bande of Nigeria, who outlined his priorities for the upcoming year and declared, “My sigh of relief will come when we make concrete progress on these goals.”

Among those priorities are poverty and hunger eradication, combating the effects of climate change, and promoting quality education and inclusion. Singling out climate change, Mr. Bande took note both of the summit meeting on that subject at the UN ten days earlier and the mass demonstrations raising the alarm in world capitals, particularly by young people.

“Even before this week, we had a very successful climate summit, and now the efforts of young people around New York and around the world, remind us all that climate action is urgent, which I think is something that is critical for us to remember as humanity,” he said.

Mr. Bande has had a long and distinguished career as a scholar, educator, administrator, and diplomat. He has been a familiar figure at the UN where he served as vice president of the GA in 2016 and since 2018, the Permanent Representative of Nigeria. From 2010 to 2016, he held the position of Director-General of Nigeria’s National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies.

IPI President Terje Rød-Larsen said that IPI had held 12 events during the week involving 23 foreign ministers, two current heads of state and two former heads of state. And he said the party, in addition to being a celebration of the success of the opening UN week, also represented the beginning of IPI’s commemoration of its 50th anniversary next year in 2020.

He recalled that former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon likened the opening week’s gathering of hundreds of world leaders and the meetings among them to “diplomatic speed dating.” He concluded by saying that now that these high-level visitors had returned home, everyone should breathe a collective “sigh of relief.”

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What contributions have the countries of the informal partnership between Mexico, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, and Australia (MIKTA) made to United Nations peacekeeping operations, and how can MIKTA model international cooperation to address the future challenges of peacekeeping?

These questions were the subject of an October 2nd seminar held at IPI’s MENA office in Manama. At the meeting, government officials, ambassadors, representatives of civil society, the private sector, and the media discussed priorities for strengthening peacekeeping initiatives, and highlighted the successes and challenges that their countries have found in peacekeeping missions.

Lt. Colonel Ratih Pusparini, of Indonesia’s National Defense and Security Agency—one of the first women in peacekeeping in Indonesia—stressed the importance of visibility for women peacekeepers in local communities.

“Women and children can approach women peacekeepers more easily in conflict areas, especially victims of gender-based violence,” she highlighted, while emphasizing the need to improve access and support for women in local peacekeeping contexts.

Lt. Pusparini called for greater commitment to women’s inclusion by senior leaders and commanders, and said that this could be achieved through public policy, corporate plans, cultural reform, and resourcing.

She also recommended the creation of a Global Gender Advisory network to ensure that gender perspectives are understood across divisions of operations. “More special training for women must be provided beyond areas which are perceived as ‘feminine duties,’” Lt. Purparini stressed, “such as medical, logistics or administrative duties.”

Major General Imam Edy Mulyono, Former Force Commander of United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), outlined the importance of the Western Sahara as geographically strategic, as it borders Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania. He also underlined some of the challenges he faced as former MINURSO Force Commander.

These challenges included violations on agreements, reductions of water supplies as a form of uncooperative action, and logistical issues such as flash flooding in 2014, which worsened the threat posed by landmines and explosive remnants of war.

To address these cases, he stressed the importance of forging a relationship between the host country and coordinators to foster effective communication in peacekeeping efforts.

Kemal Dermirciler, Turkey’s Ambassador to Bahrain, noted that his country’s contributions to peacekeeping operations, which began in 1950 during the Korean War, had been both peace support through military participation, as well as international missions where military personnel were assigned as international observers.

He cited Turkey’s current participation in peace operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Somalian territorial waters.

Dongsuk Kim, Assistant Professor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, noted that the rapid development of Korea’s economy in the 1970s and 1980s enabled the country to achieve the status of a middle power nation. He explained that

“Korean leaders thought that they needed to dispatch troops to peacekeeping missions in a bid to fulfill the duty of a middle power country and return the favor.”

Dr. Kim said that the demand for peacekeeping forces exceeds supply, and added that “Korea needs to find ways to sustain civil-military operations after troop withdrawal.”

Nejib Friji, Director of IPI MENA, highlighted MIKTA’s aim of strengthening multilateralism and global governance structures at a critical time of mistrust in the multilateral system, adding that their objectives are in line with IPI’s strategic goal of managing risk and building resilience for a more peaceful world.

Referencing the UN’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative (A4P), he explained that IPI, through research and convening, “is committed to helping the UN and member states advance the A4P agenda.” This, he said, is the “opportune time to reflect on the contribution that MIKTA can make to peacekeeping both collectively and individually.”

The presentation was followed by an interactive session with the audience. During this session, UN Resident Coordinator Amin Sharkawi pointed out that the percentage of UN women peacekeepers was 3.9% in the military, 10% in policy missions, and 28% of international civil personnel.

He commended Indonesia for leading reform in UN peacekeeping, and highlighted the importance of a Muslim country at the forefront of calls for greater involvement of women in peacekeeping.

The Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Afzaal Mahmood, noted that Pakistan’s Army had the third largest number of soldiers in UN Peacekeeping Missions. He said that the lesson learned from Pakistan’s wars in 1948, 1965, and 1971 was that “war is not the solution.” He added that “we would like to talk more about how to make peace so that post conflict management is not required.”

Italian Ambassador Domenico Bellato also noted that Italy was the seventh contributor for financing peacekeeping operations.

“We do believe in the added value of peacekeeping operations and the role of the UN in addressing those challenges through prevention,” he stated. “Italy’s approach is specifically oriented to creating bridges and to stress the link between military and civilian activity for stability to have a good relationship.”

The Moroccan Ambassador, Mostafa Benkhayi, in a right of reply to Major General Mulyono, played down what Mulyono cited as challenges faced by MINURSO in Morocco.

Tunisian Ambassador Salim Gahriani highlighted the long-standing Tunisian contribution to peacekeeping operations, commended the involvement of women in peacekeeping operations, and paid tribute to the lives lost in the service of peace.

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On September 27th, IPI, together with the United States Institute of Peace and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, cohosted a policy forum entitled “People Power and Preventing Violent Extremism: What is Working?”

In some of the most fragile states and communities around the globe, effective prevention of violent extremism is happening at the grass roots level. Local actors, and groups or organizations fill several important roles that counter the influence of violent groups, including: paving the way for nonviolent conflict transformation; providing space to strengthening practices that enable local communities have a stake in their own future; and delivering powerful positive psychological and social benefits associated with being part of a movement or peacebuilding effort.

Nonviolent action can provide an alternative method for people to address grievances while simultaneously strengthening community roots. The acts of nonviolent action can allow citizens to practice the methods of collective action that ultimately can lead to change, improvements in governance, and stronger social compacts. Building up a culture of dialogue between public actors and such grassroot actors is an additional central line of action.

Welcoming remarks
Mr. Terje Rød-Larsen, President, International Peace Institute
Ms. Nancy Lindborg, President, U.S. Institute of Peace

Opening remarks
Mr. Dominique Favre, Deputy Chief of Mission, Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations

Speakers
Mr. Abdul-Aziz Alhamza, Co-founder, Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently
Dr. Christian Pout, President, Centre Africain d’Etudes Internationales, Diplomatiques, Economiques et Stratégiques (CEIDES), Cameroon
Ms. Azaz Elshami, Sudanese-American Human Rights Advocate
Mr. Jesse Morton, Co-Founder, Parallel Networks (and former violent extremist)
Ms. Leanne Erdberg, Director, Countering Violent Extremism, and Interim Executive Director, RESOLVE Network, US Institute of Peace

Moderator
Mr. Jake Sherman, Director of the Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations, IPI

On September 27th, IPI, together with the Government of Sierra Leone, and Catalyst for Peace, cohosted a high-level policy forum entitled “An Agenda for the People by the People: Consolidating Peace and Advancing Development in Sierra Leone.” Sierra Leone has been at the forefront of localizing peace and development through a people-centered approach. The event highlighted the outcomes of this unique experience and how it can be translated in other contexts.

Over the past twelve years, the Sierra Leonean civil society organization Fambul Tok, its US-based funder and partner Catalyst for Peace, and the people of Sierra Leone have built an infrastructure that puts people and communities at the center of peace and development. This infrastructure is based on the People’s Planning Process (PPP), an inclusive organizing and planning process which after a successful pilot led to drafting a national policy framework, the Wan Fambul National Framework for Inclusive Governance and Local Development (WFNF).

Taken as a whole, the WFNF is an effective and evolving model of a whole- system partnership centered on local communities. The WFNF has been incorporated into Sierra Leone’s National Development Plan 2019–2023 as a priority. This flagship program aims to develop national capacity to engage villages, sections, chiefdoms, and districts through guardians from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development.

This identified key dimensions of the WFNF that can help put into practice Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 (gender equality), 16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions), and 17 (partnerships) while supporting many of the other SDGs. 27

Welcoming Remarks:
Mr. Terje Rød-Larsen, IPI President

Opening Remarks:
Ms. Francess Piagie Alghali, Minister of State for the Office of the Vice President, Government of Sierra Leone

Speakers:
Dr. Francis M. Kai-Kai, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Government of Sierra Leone
Mr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Special Representative of the Secretary-General
Mr. John Caulker, Executive Director of Fambul Tok International
Ms. Libby Hoffman, Founder and President of Catalyst for Peace

Moderator:
Ms. Jimena Leiva Roesch, IPI Senior Fellow

Closing Remarks:
Mr. Tamba Lamina, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Government of Sierra Leone

Foreign ministers from some 50 countries were welcomed by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on September 26th to the launch of the Alliance for Multilateralism, moderated by IPI President Terje Rød-Larsen. With nationalism and protectionism on the rise, this informal group of nations came together during United Nations General Assembly high-level week to boost international cooperation and sign commitments to multilateral initiatives on global issues such as digitalization, climate change, and respect for international humanitarian law.

Featured above are the foreign ministers of Canada, Ghana, Chile, France, Germany, Mexico, and Singapore with Mr. Rød-Larsen.

On September 26th, IPI hosted a policy forum on “The Importance of Multilateralism and Women’s Rights.”

Changes in the nature of conflict, national and global trends towards populism, shifting centers of power, and contestation of international normative frameworks have meant long-established norms regarding women’s rights are increasingly facing pushback. This is evident in venues from the Commission on the Status of Women to the UN Security Council, even as women’s rights defenders are under threat at the community level. These challenges are also occurring at a time when preparations are being made to mark the anniversaries of key international commitments to women’s rights in 2020, including the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), and Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security (2000).

This discussion at IPI focused on these global challenges and offer an opportunity to openly discuss the possibilities for a way forward. Speakers drew upon their experience to discuss women’s rights amid the current geopolitical context, the deeply gendered nature of current threats to multilateralism, what these geopolitical trends mean for how the international community seeks to build peace, and how we can ground the multilateral system in respect for women’s rights and equal status.

Welcoming Remarks:
Mr. Adam Lupel, Vice President, International Peace Institute

Speakers:
H.E. Ms. Helen Clark, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Former Administrator of The United Nations Development Programme, and Co-Founder of The Group of Women Leaders for Change and Inclusion
H.E. Ms. Irina Bokova, Former Bulgarian Politician, and Former Director-General of UNESCO and Co-Founder of The Group of Women Leaders for Change and Inclusion

Moderator:
Dr. Sarah Taylor, Senior Fellow and Head of IPI’s Women, Peace, and Security Program

On September 26th, IPI, together the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, cohosted the thirteenth annual Trygve Lie Symposium on “Human Rights and the 2030 Agenda.”

Leaving no one behind is a core principle of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which all member states committed to in 2015. One path to achieving this principle is through rule of law and strong and inclusive political institutions that respect the norms and values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the subsequent human rights instruments developed by the international community.

This year’s Trygve Lie Symposium brought together high-level government and UN officials, experts, and civil society representatives to discuss and address how the international community can promote and ensure the incorporation of human rights frameworks into the sustainability agenda. Presentations reflected on why having strong and inclusive political institutions that respect human rights is necessary for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) enshrined in the 2030 Agenda

Welcoming remarks:
The Honorable Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia and the Chair of IPI’s Board of Directors

Opening Remarks and Moderator:
H.E. Ms. Ine Eriksen Søreide, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway

Speakers:
H.E. Ms. Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ghana
H.E. Ms. Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations
H.E. Dr. Kevin Casas-Zamora, Secretary-General, International IDEA
Mr. Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme
Mr. Maina Kiai, Former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association

Photos

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On September 25th, 2019, the governments of Finland, Indonesia, Rwanda, and Uruguay, and IPI co-organized the seventh annual ministerial dinner on United Nations peace operations on the sidelines of the 74th annual UN General Assembly debate. The dinner was attended by foreign ministers and high-level delegates from capitals representing member states; the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, the Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support, and the AU Commissioner for Peace and Security were also in attendance.

This year’s high-level dialogue focused on strengthening partnership between the UN, regional organizations, and sub-regional organizations. Partnerships between the UN and regional arrangements, including the African Union, European Union, and regional economic communities, have become an important means of addressing complex peace and security challenges. In the Central African Republic, Mali, Somalia, and elsewhere, responsibility for peacemaking and peacekeeping is shared among multiple entities. Regional and sub-regional organizations often act as first responders in a crisis, drawing on political relationships, contextual understanding, and a willingness to act that complement the role of the UN. At other times, these same strengths present risks to effective engagement. As part of the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative, member states and multilateral organizations, including the AU and the EU, committed to “enhance collaboration and planning between the UN and relevant international, regional, and sub-regional organizations and arrangements… while recognizing the need for a clear delineation of roles between respective operations.”

Participants examined contemporary dynamics of various partnerships in peace operations, including peacekeeping operations as well as broader conflict management efforts. While the discussions focused on the UN and its partnerships with the AU and the EU, participants noted with encouragement the growing space for other multilateral organizations—such as the League of Arab States (LAS), Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Organization of American States (OAS), and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), among others—to strengthen their contributions.

The partnership between the UN and the AU on peace and security received particular attention during the discussion. Participants highlighted the informal division of labor that has emerged between AU-led peace support operations and UN peacekeeping operations: the AU is often better positioned to serve as a first responder and intervene immediately in crisis situations, while the UN can undertake longer-term engagement on stabilization activities (e.g., demobilization, disarmament, and reintegration, electoral support, and rule of law) in environments backed by political processes. Discussions also reflected on the significant growth in the partnership’s political and operational dimensions over recent years. In this light, participants emphasized how more structured policies and more frequent consultations have helped the organizations align their understandings and more quickly work towards collective responses. Participants also recognized the urgency of ensuring predictable and sustainable financing for AU-led peace support operations, and how continued shortfalls in this regard inhibit the effectiveness and capabilities of peace operations that undertake work that the UN is unable to perform.

Participants underscored the centrality of partnerships for the future of peace operations. They universally agreed on the importance of leveraging complementarity in different contexts, and that collective action was essential at a time of broader challenges to multilateralism. While participants acknowledged areas for additional progress at both the political and operational levels, they were nonetheless encouraged by the pace at which partnerships had grown and the significant opportunities to build on this momentum moving forward. As one participant aptly summarized, “Whatever works for peace is good. It doesn’t matter who leads, partnerships are all about flexibility in reaching a collective goal.”