#3 Proposal to the UN Security Council
for
Anticipatory Risk-Mitigation and Peace-Building Contingents

(ARM-PC)  © by Hazel Henderson and Alan F. Kay
April, 1996

BACKGROUND

Explorations by the Global Commission to Fund the United Nations,¹ its Committee on Global Security and its Co-chairs, Commissioners Alan F. Kay and Hazel Henderson, have resulted in this Proposal to the United Nations Security Council and its President, Ambassador Juan Somavia.  It is hoped that the Proposal might lead to the Security Council utilizing the services of civil society organizations which have been active in culturally-specific, local trust building, conflict resolution and training for peace building in many countries.  Commissioners Kay and Henderson, as Co-Chairs of the Commission's Committee on Global Security and in connection with their 1995 proposal for a United Nations Security Insurance Agency², have been familiar with a number of such organizations over the years and are interacting with many of them now.  In general these organizations, some well-known and most not so well-known, operating in local grass-roots situations have done excellent and valuable work and their services are in great demand.  In the post cold-war era some have grown more active in international preventive diplomacy but their basic work is "on the ground" in many countries where their professional training in community trust-building is utilized.  The global need is enormous, while their reach and effectiveness is limited primarily by the lack of recognition.  It should be noted that the organizations are very diverse and have different approaches and specialties which have developed because the needs of the world are diverse and complex.

 

List of Competent Organizations  (alphabetically)

Albert Einstein Institute, Arias Foundation (Costa Rica), British American Security Information Council, Carnegie Corporation, the Carter Center, Conflict Management Group, Foundation for Global Community, Harvard Negotiation Project, Institute for International Mediation and Conflict Resolution, Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy, International Alert (London), International Centre for Peace (Bombay), International Crisis Group (London), International Peace Research Foundation, Kettering Foundation, Pearson Peace-keeping Center (Canada), Search for Common Ground, TFF -- The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research (Sweden), Verification Technology Information Center (London)

 

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PROPOSAL

A communications-based facility tentatively called ARM-PC (Anticipatory Risk-Mitigation and Peace-building Contingent) is envisioned in this proposal.

WHEREAS the Security Council may from time to time confront situations of escalating tensions within or between member states, which it may determine require mediation efforts not only by high-level envoys, emissaries and shuttle diplomacy -- but also ongoing trust-building and conflict-resolution at the level of civil society and local officials,  

THEREFORE....we propose as part of a wider picture of reinforcing preventive diplomacy ARM-PC, a standby facility to maintain an expanding data-base with real-time communications with the existing networks of trained professionals drawn from those already serving in established non-profit civil organizations with excellent credentials and proven track records in all aspects and techniques for culturally-specific trust-building and reconstruction, conflict-resolution, risk-mitigation and confidence building.  The groups would be an in-place, on-call network of professionals already engaged in such activities in many countries in a large variety of such peace-building organizations, together with a few other organizations that support or assist such activities, each organization having its unique strengths and capabilities.  Those listed herein are only a small and unrepresentative sample of large numbers of similar groups operating in such trust and confidence building capacities in civil sectors in Africa, Europe, Latin America, Asia and North and Central America.  ARM-PC would work side-by-side with all the existing humanitarian and relief organizations doing excellent work in their specific areas, as well as all the UN and other official organizations mandated to assist in first-aid, humanitarian and refugee relief.  ARM-PC would "fill the gaps" that still exist in many situations and conflict-ravaged areas by mobilizing grassroots trust-building reconstruction in specific communities -- a role that falls between the mandates of UN peace-keeping forces and official humanitarian aid. 

ARM-PC as a "virtual organization" represents a value-added networking capability which can bridge not only between peace-keeping forces and official relief organizations, but can engage in local committees, identifying needs, training mediators and even finding opportunities for entrepreneurial enterprises and micro-loans. 

Recent experiences of conflicts (many of which are internal as well as between member states) have shown that peace-keeping military forces alone are often unable to address the many situations requiring local confidence-building, social mediation, reconstruction and other pressing civil society needs.  These situations often underlie or give rise to armed conflicts.  As UN peace-keeping forces are called on in a proliferating variety of such conflicts, their work might be reinforced by early or simultaneous deployment of civil organizations of the proposed facility, which are trained, experienced and in readiness for such services. 

Components of the Proposed Facility 

• On-line communications system and expanding data-bases linking professional organizations in a worldwide network
• Training and readiness of facility's contingents
• Monitoring and risk-mitigation services:  early-warning and reporting system linking grass-roots civil organizations in support-groups with multilateral professional organizations and local, national and international media where and as appropriate   

Endnotes: 

1. See The UN: Policy & Financing Alternatives, Editors Harlan Cleveland, Hazel Henderson, Inge Kaul (Elsevier Scientific, FUTURES UK, Mar. 1995) and US edition (1996), available at The Global Commission to Fund the United Nations, 10 Carrera St., St. Augustine FL 32084, 904-826-0984 

2.  Financing UN Functions in the Post-Cold War Era, FUTURES, 27(1), London UK, pp. 3-10.

 

 

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