UN committed to helping war-torn nations build and sustain peace - Ban
In a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D. C., Mr. Ban highlighted the work of the UN's 16 peacekeeping operations and 15 political missions in the area of peacebuilding - a core mandate of the Organization, the UN News Centre reports.
He also drew attention to the tools at the UN's disposal, namely the Peacebuilding Commission, the Peacebuilding Fund and its support office, created to provide sustained political support to post-conflict countries, and to provide fast and catalytic funding to peacebuilding efforts.
"Our record of achievement in nurturing recovery from conflict is long," Mr. Ban said. "Of course, there have been setbacks. But the bottom-line is clear: the UN is there where we are most needed. And just as clearly, our engagement has helped many societies make a new start."
He stressed that peacebuilding saves lives, protects human rights and promotes the rule of law, adding that it also saves money, with costs that are a fraction of military operations, and of the economic damage caused by of conflict.
"So it is quite natural that peacebuilding is taking on a greater profile in the work of the United Nations for peace," he said.
The UN chief noted that while violent conflict has declined significantly in the past two decades, one and a half billion people still live in fragile or conflict-affected countries.
"For them, the world does not feel safer. For them, insecurity, injustice and inequality define their days," he said. "We see rebels, gangs and organized crime syndicates undermining and overwhelming the institutions of state. We see violence driven by political exclusion, conflict over natural resources, a lack of jobs, grievances over corruption, and human rights abuses."
Over the past 20 years, too many countries that thought they had put an end to violent conflict, saw it erupt again, said the Secretary-General, adding that their political institutions were not yet effective enough to resolve differences peacefully.
"Our goal is to focus not only on negative peace - the absence of violence - but also on the foundations of long-term stability - positive peace," said Mr. Ban. "We aim to give confidence to the people... and political support over the long-term, especially when the media and others shift their attention to other crises."
He said the UN's experience has brought many lessons, including that there is no fixed sequencing among preventive diplomacy, peacebuilding and peacekeeping, and that peacebuilding is a task for many actors.
Read more http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41939&Cr=Peacebuilding&Cr1 =
