UN: The UN General Assembly voted yesterday to create a peace-building commission to stop renewed warfare through reconstruction and other assistance once fighting stops.
Assembly president Jan Eliasson called the vote "historic" and "our best chance to reverse the trend, which in recent years, has seen around half the countries end their fighting only to lapse back into conflict within five years.
The commission is one of the few reforms recommended by a UN summit in September that has been adopted by the 191-member General Assembly. The 15-nation Security Council passed an identical resolution.
But the thorniest issues are still in dispute, such as a new human rights council and comprehensive management reform.
"Progress on the [ commission] reminds us of the urgency of broader institutional reform regarding the UN budget," US ambassador John Bolton told the assembly."
"We have a collective interest in ensuring that reforms required to reduce costs and waste across the board are successful."
Even the peace-building commission itself has not been funded. UN secretary general Kofi Annan will report to a General Assembly panel by March to see whether support staff for the new body can be paid for out of existing resources.
Nevertheless, Mr Annan also called the commission "historic" because the UN system lacked a dedicated entity to keep the peace in volatile countries once UN troops leave.
"This resulted in a fractured peace-building operation, with no single forum for all the relevant actors to come together, share information and develop a common strategy," Mr Annan told the assembly.
"Too often, a fragile peace has been allowed to crumble into renewed conflict."
The new commission, he said, would focus on reconstruction and the building of institutions as well as improving co-ordination within and beyond the UN system.