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SECURITY COUNCIL REPORT 2011 No. 2 10 May 2011 SPECIAL RESEARCH REPORT This report and links to all of the relevant documents are available on our website at www.securitycouncilreport.org Working TogeTher for Peace and SecuriTy in africa: The Security council and the AU Peace and Security council TABLE OF CONTENTS 9. The AU PSC-UN Security This Special Research Report 1. Introduction .................................1 Council Relationship ................23 responds to a growing interest in 2. Historical Context .......................3 10. Trying to Put Things in how to improve the joint efforts of 2.1 UN Chapter VIII Relationships ......3 Perspective .................................26 both the UN Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council 2.2 The AU Comes into Being ............4 11. Council and Wider Dynamics ...28 to prevent and end violent conflicts 3. The AU Structural Design ..........5 11.1 Political Perspectives from in Africa. For almost six years SCR 4. The AU’s Peace and Security the Past ........................................28 has been analysing these efforts in System ..........................................6 11.2 Current Political Dynamics .........30 country-specific situations and at 4.1 The PSC’s Structure and 12. The Way Ahead ......................... 32 the thematic level. But with the tenth Working Methods..........................6 13. UN Documents ......................... 33 anniversary of the AU inauguration 4.2 The Continental Early 14. AU Documents.......................... 37 just over a year away it seemed Warning System ............................7 Appendix ................................... 38 clear that the relationship still had 4.3 The Panel of the Wise ...................7 many problems and was very far 4.4 The African Standby Force away from realising its potential for being an effective partnership. In an (ASF) .............................................8 1. Introduction effort to provide some detailed ana- 4.5 The Peace Fund ............................8 lytical tools for the parties, this 5. The UN-AU Relationship on Conflicts in Africa have occupied the report represents the beginning of Peace and Security .....................8 bulk of the Security Council time and an ongoing and detailed engage- 5.1 OAU-UN Relationship ...................8 energy for nearly two decades. During ment by SCR on this issue. 5.2 Early African Peacekeeping .........9 its first 40 years, the Council estab- lished only one operation in Africa, the The preliminary conclusions from 5.3 Ten-year Capacity Building this report suggest that most of the Plan ................................................9 UN Operation in the Congo in 1960. In necessary institutional steps are 6. The Evolution of the contrast, from 1989 to 2011, 25 opera- already in place, but given the Security Council’s tions were mandated for Africa, some resource constraints in the UN and Engagement with Africa ............11 of them with a record degree of com- even more so in the AU, it is a mis- 6.1 Historical Background ................11 plexity, and with several of them take to expect the secretariats to 6.2 The Relationship with the AU deployed simultaneously. bring about a real partnership. as a Council Agenda Item ..........14 Leadership by the member states The need for various forms of conflict 6.3 Key Council Decisions Related of both Councils will be key and prevention and management assis- to the Relationship with the AU ...15 engagement needs to go beyond tance in Africa has surpassed the UN 6.4 The Cycle of Reporting ...............16 the brief and often symbolic visits capacity. The UN system has been 7. UN-AU Cooperation in to Addis Ababa and New York. coping with this situation with varying Peacekeeping ............................17 Investment of more time and mem- degree of success, mainly through ber state energy will be essential. A 7.1 Darfur...........................................17 political and peacekeeping tools. UN number of possible options in this 7.2 Somalia .......................................20 peacekeeping has been the most visi- regard are identified in this report. 8. The Evolution of the African ble tool and in some cases it has been Other possibilities including the Side’s Engagement with the very effective. By contrast, UN conflict role of the subregional bodies will Security Council ........................22 be examined in future reports. Security Council Report One Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, 885 Second Avenue, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10017 T:1 212 759 9429 F:1 212 759 4038 www.securitycouncilreport.org 1 SECURITY COUNCIL REPORT SPECIAL RESEARCH REPORT prevention and mediation efforts have Council, meeting for the first time at the consultations alternating between the been less visible and UN coordination level of heads of state and government, respective headquarters of the two of integrated programmes to address asked the Secretary-General to recom- bodies since 2007. the root causes of conflict even less mend ways to strengthen and make These meetings have so far focused on effective. It remains to be seen how the UN more efficient for preventive process rather than substance. They well the new peacebuilding architec- diplomacy, peacemaking and peace- have been marked by a degree of ture will perform. keeping. In response in June 1992, the tension in periods leading up to the Secretary-General issued his report An Peacekeeping operations have been meetings. It appears that there are a Agenda for Peace, where he highlighted severely stretched and slow in imple- number of outstanding issues between the role that regional organisations could menting mandates due to a variety of the two bodies: play in preventive diplomacy, early warn- factors including the high number of n The PSC is sometimes frustrated ing systems for crisis prevention, forces already deployed, poor working that the Security Council has not peacekeeping and post-conflict peace- methods in the Council to oversee and been responsive when it has sought building. Thus there emerged the manage integrated operations, the political support for preventive diplo- concept of global-regional partnerships global economic crisis and difficulties in macy and crisis management. in the maintenance of peace and security. generating and quickly deploying well- n PSC members also feel disappointed equipped troops and competent civilian However, this fragile architecture was that the Security Council has hesi- capacity. In this context and in the face put to a premature, and almost impos- tated to provide the degree of of massive human suffering in different sible test in the early 1990s, following practical and material support in the areas of the continent, finding improved the failures of UN operations in peacekeeping context that the PSC ways of meeting African peace and Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia. In the has requested. security needs continues to be vital. following retreat from multilateralism n The PSC is perplexed by what it sees the major powers tended to abdicate as a lack of transparency, timely At the outset of the current century, leadership, leaving new crises in Africa access, and basic courtesy by the Africa strove to come up with its own largely in the hands of under resourced Security Council on procedural issues. system to address a broad spectrum of regional countries. n Security Council members are often matters, including peace and security, frustrated in their dealings with the by creating in 2002 the AU and, as part The re-emergence of support for UN AU by the AU’s lack of consistency on of its plans for what is referred to as the leadership at the end of the millennium some key issues of principle. “African Peace and Security Architec- came at a time when it was becoming n A tendency to expect the Council to ture”, almost two years later establishing clear that Africa was the place where a defer to the position of regional the AU PSC. partnership had the highest potential to organisations worries some Council make an impact but also the place A productive burden sharing between the members. Other Council members where the challenges were the greatest. UN and regional organisations (and sub- worry that regional groupings in The AU is still young and the global- regional organisations) could be key to some situations have difficulty being regional partnership concept between addressing many of the problems. The impartial and may be part of the the AU and the UN is also therefore rela- UN founders in 1945 foresaw the need for problem rather than the solution. tively new. It is still constantly evolving. future arrangements with regional organ- n The huge complexities of jointly An important and unique aspect of this isations and included this in the UN managing a hybrid UN/AU mission in relationship between the global organi- Charter Chapter VIII which acknowledges Darfur and the differences regarding sation and a regional one is that since the scope for contribution of regional the approach to Somalia where the 2007, the top security bodies of the two organisations to the settlement of dis- Council is reluctant to transform the organisations, the Security Council of putes. But it was not until the early 1990s AU operation into a UN peacekeep- the UN and the Peace and Security that Chapter VIII was given more focused ing mission, despite the Africans’ Council of the AU, have maintained attention. In January 1992 the Security repeated calls for such a transforma- regular contact, with annual joint

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