Prioritization and Sequencing of Security Council Mandates: the Case of UNITAMS
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Prioritization and Sequencing of Security Council Mandates: The Case of UNITAMS MAY 2021 Introduction In June 2021, the UN Security Council is expected to renew the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) for the first time. In this context, the International Peace Institute (IPI), the Stimson Center, and Security Council Report organized a virtual workshop on April 26, 2021, to discuss UNITAMS’s mandate and political strategy. The workshop offered a forum for member-state representa- On April 26, 2021, the International tives, UN officials, and outside experts to develop a shared understanding and Peace Institute (IPI), the Stimson common strategic assessment of the situation in Sudan. The session was Center, and Security Council Report intended to help the Security Council make informed decisions with respect organized a virtual workshop to to the strategic orientation, prioritization, and sequencing of UNITAMS’s discuss the mandate and political mandate and actions on the ground. strategy of the United Nations Participants highlighted that the mission’s current strategic objectives— Integrated Transition Assistance assisting the political transition; supporting peace processes; assisting Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS). These peacebuilding, civilian protection, and the rule of law; and mobilizing discussions are part of a series of economic, development, and humanitarian assistance—are areas where the 1 workshops that examines how the UN can add value. Yet in the renewed mandate, participants encouraged the activities included in the peace Security Council to provide more focus within these ambitious priorities and to support a more inclusive Sudanese political transition. operations’ mandates can be better prioritized, sequenced, and grounded in a political strategy. This meeting Context Analysis note was drafted collaboratively by Sudan’s political transition, set in motion by the overthrow of the thirty-year IPI, the Stimson Center, and Security government of Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, continues to evolve at a steady Council Report. It summarizes the pace. The political, security, and socioeconomic conditions informing the main points raised in the discussion discussions on UNITAMS’s mandate renewal are already different from those under the Chatham House rule of under which UNITAMS was created in June 2020. The signing of the Juba non-attribution and does not Peace Agreement (JPA) in October 2020, as well as the endorsement of a necessarily represent the views of all declaration of principles between the transitional government and Abdelaziz participants. The project is funded al-Hilu’s faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM- N) in March 2021, mark important, albeit preliminary, steps toward compre- with the support of the German hensive peace. Federal Foreign Office. While the transitional government has implemented a number of governance and administrative reforms, key steps in the political transition have been delayed. And as the transitional government continues to affirm its responsi- 1 UN Security Council Resolution 2524 (June 3, 2020), UN Doc. S/RES/2524, para. 2. 2 MEETING NOTE Box 1. Key considerations for UNITAMS’s mandate renewal Participants raised several points for consideration during the upcoming negotiations on UNITAMS’s mandate renewal. On the mandate in general: • Provide clearer focus within UNITAMS’s strategic objectives (i.e., prioritize the priorities). • Promote more inclusive political processes and governance systems. • Maintain UNITAMS’s flexibility to adjust its capacities in response to developments on the ground and requests from Sudanese stakeholders. On the political transition and peace processes: • Recognize recent progress in the transition process and the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement in the mandate. • Prioritize the mission’s work on increasing diversity and broadening participation in formal negotiation processes and civilian-led governance. • Encourage UNITAMS to facilitate trust-building exercises between state officials and local actors, including between the center and the peripheries and with the involvement of women and youth. On protecting civilians: • Retain emphasis on advisory support to Sudanese security institutions, technical support for legislation on justice and accountability, and the reinforcement of community-based early-warning and early- response mechanisms. • Specify areas where UNITAMS should focus its support to the transitional government’s implementa- tion of its National Plan for Civilian Protection. • Strengthen expertise on local conflict management and civilian protection. On peacebuilding: • Emphasize collaboration on peacebuilding activities between UNITAMS and the UN country team. • Expand support to strengthening the state’s administrative capacities (national and local). bility to protect all civilians, rising insecurity in ties, which has enabled the mission to reach out to parts of the country exposes the seriousness of the the negotiating parties since its deployment. threats civilians face, particularly in Darfur. These dynamics only heighten the concerns of the The JPA is a complex agreement comprising Sudanese public, who have yet to see significant separate protocols negotiated between different changes in their daily lives. Sudanese armed movements and the transitional government. It extends Sudan’s transition period by Peace Processes thirty-nine months, starting in October 2020, and outlines the steps for a constitution-drafting process The transitional government affirmed the pursuit and power-sharing arrangement under a new of a comprehensive, nationwide peace as one of its federal system. Participants underscored the priorities for the first stages of the transition. This challenges confronting the JPA and its implementa- high-level commitment translated into the signing tion. They highlighted that there is not complete of the JPA in October 2020, as well as the govern- public buy-in to the agreement, as a large portion of ment’s ongoing peace negotiations with the SPLM- Sudanese society felt excluded from the negotia- N’s al-Hilu faction. Supporting all peace negotia- tions. Participants also observed that only armed tions and the implementation of subsequent movements without active military presences or agreements is one of UNITAMS’s mandated priori- large political constituencies signed the JPA. By Prioritization and Sequencing of Security Council Mandates: The Case of UNITAMS 3 contrast, Abdul Wahid al-Nur’s faction of the Sudan Sudan’s transitional government has made Liberation Army (SLA-AW) and the SPLM-N’s progress on certain reforms as envisioned in the al-Hilu faction remain outside of the agreement, August 2019 Constitutional Declaration. For limiting its potential to ameliorate security and example, Prime Minister Hamdok announced the political conditions in Darfur and the Two Areas formation of a new, expanded cabinet in February (South Kordofan and Blue Nile). They also noted 2021 that is comparatively more inclusive of that implementing the agreement’s many technical various political interests. The first technical provisions will be costly and complex, even with workshop of the Higher Committee of the unified political support. Conference on the System of Governance began on April 27th, serving as a precursor to the national These conditions highlight why recent negotiations constitution-drafting process that will inform between the transitional government and the decisions on the division of power between federal SPLM-N’s al-Hilu faction are important political and state entities, as well as on the delineation of milestones. The ongoing negotiations build on two state boundaries.2 One participant also highlighted separate declarations of principles signed in that the transitional government had recently September 2020 and March 2021, as well as the promulgated laws formally establishing Sudan’s unilateral cease-fire declared by the SPLM-N’s al- Peace Commission, Anti-Corruption Committee, Hilu faction (currently lasting through June 30, and Transitional Justice Commission. 2021), which provide a foundation for future engagement. Negotiations between the movement Some participants, however, underscored that and the transitional government are expected to these recent political developments risk expanding resume in May 2021. Participants emphasized that the influence of a relatively narrow set of political these negotiations were important for addressing elites at the expense of a broad-based and inclusive unresolved political issues such as the separation of approach to governance. This tension is epitomized federal powers, the role of religion in the state, and by the ongoing delays in establishing Sudan’s the integration of armed movements into national Transitional Legislative Council (i.e., parliament), a security institutions. key constitutional body envisioned to be the most inclusive and representative body in the transi- Political Transition and tional government. Governance Participants also underscored that the transitional Participants underscored the complexity of Sudan’s government will continue to face challenges. Many political transition from decades of autocracy of these difficulties are linked to a historical lack of toward civilian-led governance. Power is currently inclusive governance and a continued trust deficit shared between the military and civilian leadership between the transitional government and in