A step forward
From Never Again
Peacebuilding: a step forward?
Published in The Friend, 18 November 2005
By the end of this year, the world will have its very own Peacebuilding Commission. Something for Friends to get excited about, no? Well, anticipation has been muted by the indications coming out that the Commission will focus on post-conflict rebuilding rather than conflict prevention. Typically, some might say, sensitive Security Council members have neutered the new organisation before it has even started.
But all is not lost, especially when you consider that states are most vulnerable to slipping into conflict within five years of a previous one. Post-conflict rebuilding should, then, prevent a great deal of violent conflict, even if emerging crises still risk being ignored. Sustained, coordinated focus on rebuilding will build valuable skills and might avoid another Iraq-style quagmire.
A stimulating discussion I joined with Wimbledon Friends about Rwanda last week also alerted me to an inherent problem in prevention. While civil society does an enormously effective job of quietly preventing violence in many countries, NGOs are often forced to leave when a situation gets too dangerous or their own workers are targeted. However, does that mean we should be sending in an international army whenever things get dangerous? Would France be likely to accept peacekeepers now?
Many people still see dangers in intervening in breaking conflict: feeling concerned not only about the motives of the countries sending forces but also, from a pacifist point of view, the use of army forces at all. All this could change if there was a genuine, international peacekeeping force with a mandate to protect civilians, who could be viewed more as a police force than an army. We accept this sort of security on our own streets. If governments were also able to accept the idea of peacekeeping help before major violence, civil society and that government would have the space and vital security to try and deal with the issues creating violence. One would hope that governments would be less likely to refuse the benevolent helping hand than the authoritarian judge, distant though such optimism may appear at the moment.
The Peacebuilding Commission brings us one step closer to the vision of Responsibility to Protect. Friends have expertise linking the grassroots with the highest levels of the UN, a successful methodology which is now being recognised in the UN. Let's embrace the Commission and help shape it.
