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The Peacekeeping Transition in Darfur DECEMBER 2019 Navigating Crisis and Opportunity: The Peacekeeping Transition in Darfur DANIEL FORTI Cover Photo: UNAMID officially hands ABOUT THE AUTHOR over its team site in Tine, North Darfur, to the government of Sudan, October DANIEL FORTI is a Policy Analyst at the International 19, 2017. Mohamad Almahady/UNAMID. Peace Institute. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this Email: [email protected] paper represent those of the author and not necessarily those of the International Peace Institute. IPI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS welcomes consideration of a wide range of perspectives in the pursuit of IPI owes a debt of gratitude to their many donors for their a well-informed debate on critical generous support. This publication is part of an IPI project policies and issues in international entitled "Planning for United Nations Peacekeeping affairs. Operations Transitions," funded by the government of Germany. IPI Publications Adam Lupel, Vice President The author would like to thank the many individuals who Albert Trithart, Editor shared their insights and perspectives during the research interviews. The author is grateful to the individuals who Meredith Harris, Editorial Intern provided feedback on earlier drafts of this report, including Jake Sherman, Namie Di Razza, Adam Day, as well as Suggested Citation: colleagues from the United Nations. The author owes a Daniel Forti, “Navigating Crisis and particular debt of gratitude to Gabriel Delsol, who provided Opportunity: The Peacekeeping invaluable support throughout the lifecycle of this study. Transition in Darfur,” International The author also appreciates the dedicated efforts of Albert Peace Institute, December 2019. Trithart and Meredith Harris during the revision phases, and © by International Peace Institute, 2019 thanks Thong Nguyen for his work on the graphics All Rights Reserved contained in this report. Any errors of fact or judgment are the sole responsibility of the author. www.ipinst.org CONTENTS Abbreviations . iii Executive Summary . 1 Introduction . 2 The Context of UNAMID’s Transition. 2 UNAMID’S UNIQUE CONFIGURATION CHALLENGES OF PEACEKEEPING IN DARFUR Laying the Transition’s Groundwork . 6 AN EXIT STRATEGY PROMPTED BY THE LIMITS OF PEACEKEEPING UNAMID’S DRAWDOWN AND “WHOLE-OF-SYSTEM” TRANSITION CONCEPTS Implementing the Transition . 9 INTEGRATING STRUCTURES AND PLANNING JUMP-STARTING PEACEBUILDING WORK THROUGH THE STATE LIAISON FUNCTIONS PROTECTING CIVILIANS AND MONITORING HUMAN RIGHTS MOBILIZING POLITICAL SUPPORT AMID A DEADLOCKED PEACE PROCESS Transitioning through Crisis: UNAMID and Sudan’s Governance Transition . 17 KEY DEVELOPMENTS DURING SUDAN’S GOVERNANCE TRANSITION (APRIL–AUGUST 2019) UNAMID’S MANDATE RENEWALS AND THE DRAWDOWN’S TEMPORARY PAUSE CHANGING SECURITY DYNAMICS IN DARFUR SIGNS OF LIFE FOR THE PEACE PROCESS Priorities for the Transition’s Final Stages . 22 STRENGTHENING POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE TWO COUNCILS TRANSLATING THE JOINT POLITICAL STRATEGY INTO AN EFFECTIVE FOLLOW-ON PRESENCE REINFORCING THE TRANSITION CONCEPT INTEGRATING HUMAN RIGHTS AND PROTECTION INTO ALL AREAS OF WORK SUSTAINING FINANCIAL SUPPORT AND INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION Conclusion . 30 Annex: UNSC Benchmarks for UNAMID . 31 iii Abbreviations A3 Three African members of the UN Security Council AU African Union AUHIP AU High-Level Implementation Panel AUPSC AU Peace and Security Council CEWARN Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism FFC Forces of Freedom and Change IDP Internally displaced person OHCHR Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights PBC UN Peacebuilding Commission RSF Rapid Support Forces SLF State liaison function SRF Sudan Revolutionary Front SRSG Special representative of the secretary-general TMC Transitional Military Council UNAMID African Union–United Nations Mission in Darfur UNCT UN country team UNDP UN Development Programme UNSC UN Security Council 1 Executive Summary period with a sense of cautious optimism, so too do the UN and AU enter a new stage of the In the face of evolving security dynamics and peacekeeping transition. Darfur’s deep structural geopolitical pressures, the African Union (AU) challenges—especially those related to protecting Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) and the UN civilians, respecting human rights, and providing Security Council initiated the withdrawal of the basic services—will persist well beyond the AU-UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) in 2017. mission’s exit. While the AU and the UN can help This transition is a uniquely complex undertaking. address these challenges, they should not lose sight This is in part because UNAMID is a hybrid of the significant investments needed to adapt the peacekeeping operation, is not integrated with the transition to the new political reality while UN country team (UNCT) headquartered in ensuring it is effective and sustainable. To this end, Khartoum, and has historically had weak support their efforts should focus on five broad priorities: from the government. The transition also • Strengthening political engagement between confronts difficult humanitarian, security, and the UNSC and AUPSC: The two councils’ economic conditions in Darfur, where violence is political engagement in Sudan is imperative for ongoing and many underlying drivers of conflict the success both of the peacekeeping transition remain unaddressed. Because of these conditions, and of Sudan’s governance transition. To sustain the transition began before a comprehensive peace this engagement, the councils need internal agreement—the central pillar of the mission’s exit political unity as well as aligned strategies. strategy—could be achieved. • Translating the joint political strategy into an To mitigate these difficult circumstances, the UN effective follow-on presence: The AU and UN and AU’s initial concept for the transition focused need to ensure the primacy of any follow-on on a “whole-of-system” approach. This concept presence’s political mandate, which should be placed peacebuilding at its center and prioritized reinforced by all other aspects of its work. In collaboration between the mission and UNCT on designing a new presence, they will need to planning and decision making. Central to this consider whether to maintain a Security collaboration were the state liaison functions, an Council–authorized mission, whether to expand innovative model whereby UNAMID officials its focus beyond Darfur, and how to divide up the collocate in the offices of various UN agencies to work. undertake joint programming. As UNAMID • Reinforcing the transition concept: The mission reduced its footprint in Darfur, the mission and and UNCT should reinforce joint planning UNCT also pursued new avenues to protect efforts and strengthen national ownership over civilians and monitor human rights. These largely the transition process. They should also scale up programmatic efforts progressed further than the peacebuilding work, identify opportunities for political and security aspects of the transition. new actors to complement ongoing initiatives, On top of an already complex transition process, and focus on questions of long-term sustain- a nationwide political crisis erupted in Sudan ability. following protests beginning in December 2018 • Integrating human rights and protection into and the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir several all areas of work: The UN and AU should months later. This tested the UN and AU’s ability integrate protection and human rights into their to adapt the transition to changing conditions and political engagement at the national and led to a temporary pause in the mission’s subnational levels, continue prioritizing efforts to drawdown. Following months of uncertainty, the strengthen justice and the rule of law, explore Sudanese adopted a new constitutional declaration new approaches to early warning, and accelerate and inaugurated a three-year power-sharing planning for the security transition. government in August 2019. These momentous changes present a unique opportunity for the • Sustaining international attention and financial Sudanese people to pursue a comprehensive peace support: To avoid a financial cliff after the agreement. mission leaves, the UN and AU should consider how they can make funding more predictable As Sudan embarks into this new transitional 2 Daniel Forti and streamlined. The international community UN’s presence in a country and establish new also needs to sustain political engagement on the modalities of support to national priorities in order mission’s transition and in Darfur more to build resilience and prevent relapse into conflict. generally. These efforts require sustained political collabora- UNAMID’s drawdown and reconfiguration are tion among member states and between the UN the first of many complex peacekeeping transitions and national actors, integration across different the international community will need to manage pillars of the UN system, and coherence between over the coming years. UNAMID’s exit strategy, the UN and external partners. Transitions also drawdown, and reconfiguration may offer lessons require flexibility and adaptability, especially as these future transitions could learn from. host countries begin strengthening their ownership over a range of peace, governance, and develop- Introduction ment initiatives. UNAMID’s peacekeeping transi- tion has put all of these principles to the test. The ongoing transition of the African Union– This paper examines the dynamics of the United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) is a ongoing peacekeeping transition
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