Peace-keeping: a whole new range of responsibilities.

Peace-keeping, observed Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in his annual report on the work of the Organization, "now stretches across a heretofore unimagined range of United Nations activities and responsibilities".

Traditional assumptions, he continued, relating to the "upholding of agreements, the consent and cooperation of the parties and the minimum use of force, have all been under challenge from recent developments in certain peace-keeping operations".

In South Africa, for example, civilian UN observers have for the first time been sent to a country with the consent of the Government to assist in what is purely a domestic matter: containing the level of violence. And in The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, for the first time ever in UN history, military units have been deployed as a measure, of preventive diplomacy.

~Agenda' proposals

In his "An Agenda for Peace", Mr. Boutros-Ghali set out proposals for the future of peace operations undertaken by the UN, including: fostering preventive diplomacy through establishment of an early warning system for assessing possible threats to peace; pursuing greater roles in peacemaking by establishing a permanent standing UN force to serve as a "guarantor of international security"; responding to increasing demands for peace-keeping by creation of a $50-million revolving peace-keeping reserve fund; and promoting post-conflict peace-building by undertaking such tasks as demining combat zones, monitoring elections and repatriating refugees - as the UN has recently done in Cambodia.

Another increasingly important aspect of UN activities is humanitarian assistance. "Frequently, situations of humanitarian need provide indications of impending conflict even before they develop into more serious threats to international peace and security", the Secretary-General reported. "Early awareness of the root causes of conflict can allow appropriate preventive action to be taken."

To that end, the new Department of Humanitarian Affairs manages an inter-agency early-warning mechanism for examining Possible situations of mass population displacement.

"Food, water, land-mines, disease and death, and democratization, human rights and development are inextricably intertwined", he stated. "Efforts to deal with particular issues cannot succeed in the absence of a comprehensive vision of the whole."

As a step towards realizing that vision, the Foreign Ministers of the Security Council's five permanent members have agreed to cooperate in strengthening UN capabilities in the peace-keeping area.

In a 30 September statement (S/26517), they pledged strong support for efforts to improve UN efficiency and to revitalize the Organization's peacekeeping capabilities.

They stressed the importance of peace-keeping reform, including improving budget procedures and modernizing command, control and communications. States willing to contribute troops and other forms of material assistance to UN operations should coordinate their efforts.

New commitments, they said, should be weighed very carefully and made only after fundamental questions of mandate, objectives, adequacy of force, availability of resources, risk to personnel, and length of mandate had been examined and satisfactorily resolved. Coordination with humanitarian assistance operations was also desirable.

Safety a concern

On 29 September, the Security Council encouraged Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali to move, forward with his security proposals.

By unanimously adopting resolution 868 (1993), the Council determined that future UN operations would require that host Governments take steps to ensure the security and safety of UN operations, including that of all personnel.

The Council resolutely condemned increasing attacks against UN personnel and confirmed that the use of force against them would be considered interference with the exercise of Council responsibilities and "may require the Council to consider measures it deems appropriate".

It welcomed initiatives being taken in the General Assembly "to consider the elaboration of new instruments" relating to the security and safety of UN forces and personnel.