Post-conflict peace-building: contents and scopes
d. Jamal of Mansar
Source: Journal of the Books of Politics and Law, No. 13 - University of Algiers
Submission:
From the lessons of history, we have repeatedly learned that the end of war does not necessarily mean that peace has finally stabilized, so conflict specialists have made some significant changes in recent decades to the way in which they understand and analyse the themes of conflict and peace. In the past, they tended to regard conflict as a set of events whose accumulation and evolution led to a political crisis at the international or national level, and which required external mediators with special skills to resolve the conflict.
They now realize, however, that conflict in its general sense is a natural expression of social differences and differences and that it is part of the ongoing human struggle and struggle for justice and self-determination. The challenge is not to abolish conflicts, but to put an end and end to the circular nature of violent conflict, first by recognizing the existence of different interests and thus guiding the parties efforts in constructive directions.
Conflict Transformation School - which emerged in the 1990s - The resolution of the problems that cause conflict is itself complicated, not even possible, and must therefore be influenced in the context surrounding the conflict and changed. This approach calls for dealing with the diverse social and political sources of conflict and for transforming the negative energy behind the war into positive change in the social and political spheres. Thus, thinking is shifted from resolving a particular conflict to a process through which future conflict can be avoided, namely, reaching the root of problems, and taking action to avoid conflict, including change in social institutions and policies. This is reflected in the concept of peace-building, which became one of the central concepts of peace and conflict studies , especially as it emerged from the conceptual and theoretical side of the institutional side with the emergence of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission in 2005.
This concept of peace-building is at the centre of this study, which attempts to clarify what it means in the literature of peace and conflict, as well as to identify its contents and the timelines and objectivity in which the concept can be operationalized.
Definition of Building-Peace Peace:
The early features of this concept - peace-building - can be said to have begun. with the 14 Welson Points, which were viewed as pillars of the perpetuation of peace after the First World War, and as a means of preserving the gains made on the path to peace, by establishing a compromise peace and ensuring its survival in a way that is a sponsoring international institution, the League of Nations.
However, this concept of peacebuilding was first used by Johan Galtung1 s Johan Galtung in his 1975 article. It included it in three approaches to peace: peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.
Johan Galtungs understanding of peacebuilding is based on the distinction between passive peace (end of direct or physical violence) and positive peace (absence of structural or indirect violence) 2. While the absence of physical or physical violence achieves negative peace through peacekeeping, positive peace can only be achieved through the absence of structural violence through peacemaking and peacebuilding.
While peacemaking aims to resolve conflicts by removing tensions between the parties to conflict, peace-building aims to achieve a positive peace through the creation of structures and institutions for peace based on justice, equality and cooperation, thereby addressing -- permanently -- the underlying causes of conflict and preventing the cycle of violence from returning.
The concept of peace-building, after its institutional adoption, has been promoted with the report of the former Secretary-General of the United Nations. Boutros-Ghali of 1992, known as An Agenda for Peace, presented his vision of strengthening and increasing the capacity of the United Nations to achieve a comprehensive and integrated concept for international peace and security peace-building , including four key terms that constitute an integrated cycle beginning with preventive diplomacy and continuing with peacemaking and peace-keeping, Since then, the concept has been in the literature of international peace and security.
Nevertheless, the most significant challenge in studying this concept is the lack of a specific agreed definition of peace-building. Even the tariffs in circulation are mostly included in international reports.
In his pioneering work, Three approaches to peace: peace-keeping, peacemaking and peace-building, Johan Galtung assumed that: Peace-building has a different structure than peacekeeping and peacemaking. It requires the creation of structures that remove the causes of war and offer alternatives to them. It is an effort to create sustainable peace by addressing the root causes of violent conflict and employing local capacities for peaceful post-conflict management. 4
In his 1992 report entitled An Agenda for Peace - previously referred to - former Secretary-General of the United Nations Boutros-Ghali identified it as: Working to identify and support structures that would strengthen and consolidate peace to avoid a return to conflict .5
In his 1998 report on The Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa, Boutros-Ghali went on to say: What I mean by peace-building after 6 conflict is the actions taken at the end of the conflict to promote peace and prevent the return of armed confrontation.
The 2004 report of the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change entitled A safer world: Our shared responsibility 7 has relied heavily on this concept, convinced that it harmonizes the work of the United Nations with the new challenges to which international security has become a presentation. In this report, the idea of establishing an independent body within the United Nations system entrusted with the task of peace-building 8 was launched and strengthened with the 2005 World Summit Report. 9
The concept of peace-building shares with peace-keeping that not both have a repressive nature, and a progression in the work of peace-keeping forces, especially after the end of the cold war, has made their tasks take on a new dimension to assign to them some of the tasks of peace-building. Peacekeeping operations have evolved with the beginning of the twenty-first century, incorporating elements of peacebuilding, such as: Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of veterans into their societies and assistance in the establishment of State institutions and infrastructure, such as: The judiciary, the rule of law, the reconstruction of security authorities, training, the protection of human rights and the establishment of the democratic process by assisting in the conduct of free and fair presidential, legislative and local elections. Examples include the elections in the framework of peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2004 to 2006, which included the role of the United Nations in peacekeeping operations in cooperation with UNDP and coordination with international funding institutions, specialized agencies, programmes and funds of the United Nations.
The concept of preventive diplomacy, which demonstrates the efforts already made to prevent conflicts, and the concept of tuberculosis-making, which depends on reconciling the conflicting parties through peaceful means in a major way, are techniques operating in the phases prior to the peace-building phase.
Thus, all previous concepts intersect, with the aim of achieving and establishing international peace, but each has its own nature and scope of application.
Peace-building is therefore a process that begins with the end of an armed conflict and involves the efforts of several international and domestic parties to preserve the steps that have been achieved that have resulted in an end to the conflict on the one hand, and to establish a new phase that will ensure the sustainability of these results on the other.
What is already possible is that peace-building is the set of actions and arrangements implemented in the post-conflict phase with a view to ensuring that there is no relapse into conflict or a relapse into conflict. by changing some elements of the environment in which the conflict took place to create a new environment, They would reduce the contradictions that have led to conflict, promote trust among its parties and strengthen national capacities at the State level to manage conflict outcomes and lay the foundations for sustainable development.
Components and contents of peace-building:
The end of public violence through the Peace Agreement or military victory does not mean peace, although post-conflict presents a new set of opportunities that can be seized or wasted for sustainable peace. Peace-building is a concept that defines and supports structures that will strengthen and consolidate peace in order to avoid a return to conflict. Just as preventive diplomacy aims to prevent a particular conflict, peace-building begins in the context of this conflict to avoid a recurrence of 10.
The immediate task of peace-building is to mitigate the effects of war on the population. Its primary tasks are food assistance, support for health and hygiene systems, mine clearance and support for key organizations at the logistical level. It is also important that efforts to meet immediate needs be made in ways that promote rather than risk long-term development objectives. While lunch is provided, emphasis must be placed on restoring its production capabilities and, in conjunction with the delivery of relief supplies, attention must be paid to road construction, the restoration and improvement of port facilities and the establishment of warehouses in the area and distribution centres.
Peace-building strategies encapsulate all processes that seek to address the underlying causes of conflict and violent crises in order to ensure that they do not recur and are aimed at meeting the basic needs of security and order protection, food and dress. What most societies do spontaneously is build peace - that is, develop effective national and international decision-making systems, Mechanisms for conflict resolution and cooperation measures to meet basic human, cultural, social and economic needs and facilitate effective citizenship. Includes
Post-conflict peace-building strategy Six key elements 12:
Re-launch of the national economy.
Decentralized investments based on the Community.
Overhaul of major telecommunications networks.
Demining (from appropriate locations associated with other initial investments).
Demobilization and rehabilitation of ex-combatants.
Reintegration of the displaced population.
Peace-building is complementary to peace-keeping. Conflict resolution requires efforts at several levels. Peace-keeping is limited to third-party military forces in an attempt to contain or prevent violence. peace-building , encompassing material, social and structural initiatives that would help reconstruction and rehabilitation. Most United Nations peace-keeping operations entail peace-building to a certain extent.
The institution-building strategy is the first strategy in the process of peace-building and stabilization in collapsing States. The objectives of this strategy are:
• Strengthen and reform management.
• Establishment of conflict resolution institutions.
• Improve the financing and tax systems.
Institution-building is indispensable, but not enough. Building stable social and political structures in war-torn societies also requires a compelling strategy for economic development, bottom-up approaches and civil society-building activities.
Peace-building strategies encapsulate all processes that seek to deal with the causes of conflict and complete violent crises in order to ensure that they do not recur, and are aimed at meeting the basic needs of security, order, protection, food and dress. Peace-building is taking place at all levels at the national and international levels, for example by placing arms control regimes in place. and increasing the number of confidence-building mechanisms as attempts to ensure cooperation and peace in national and international transactions, Initiatives at home aimed at reducing gaps between rich and poor and the dissemination of human rights principles and the building of the sustainable development process.
Scope of work of the peace-building concept:
The definition of the scope within which the concept of peace-building operates includes determining the temporal scope of this concept, namely the moment of time -- relevant to armed conflict -- in which peace-building arrangements are applied, as well as the type of armed conflict itself, as well as the objective scope of the most prominent areas in which the concept operates.
01. Timeline for the implementation of peace-building arrangements:
The concept of peace-building deals with the post-armed conflict phase, particularly the immediate aftermath of conflict assessed by United Nations experts as the first two years of the post-conflict phase, In this period, the challenges and gaps of the conflict are most evident. At the same time, the opportunities to address them may arise in a manner that may not be provided by the following stages, Decisions and recommendations taken at this stage will have implications for peace in the long and medium term.
The concept of peace-building is of a therapeutic nature. conflict , through which many of the effects of conflict leading to post-conflict instability and security vulnerability are addressed, as perpetrators of criminal acts in the conflict remain unpunished or as outstanding problems associated with refugees or displaced persons displaced by the conflict, but on the other hand these actions are of a preventive nature conflict , reaching the end of a conflict does not mean achieving peace as long as the rest of the causes of the conflict are rooted, which may prompt the recurrence of violence.
Scope of application of peace-building according to type of conflict:
The concept of peace-building is applicable in relation to international and non-international armed conflicts While application methods and mechanisms differ in both areas, the objective remains to address the post-conflict phase and create a climate of trust between its former parties. joint cooperative projects linking the parties to the conflict that have ended, Such as agricultural development projects, road or electrical connectivity projects and other joint ventures. Peacebuilding instruments in the context of international armed conflicts differ from provisions of international law that can address the effects of such conflicts, such as treaties on arms regulation or provisions on the resolution of legal issues disputed as a result of such conflicts international peace-building , while we find a combination of international and domestic efforts with regard to internal peace-building, i.e., the situation of non-international armed conflicts, and not limited to the provisions of international law.
03. Substantive scope of application of peace-building arrangements:
There are key areas through which the concept of peace-building, all of which revolve around a single objective, namely, justice, security and economic development, and through this it can be said that peace-building work may include the following:
1. Restore the capacity of State institutions to maintain public order and establish security.
2. Strengthening the rule of law and respect for human rights. In the event that the States judicial system is collapsed or unable to exercise its functions, so-called justice portfolios, which are model laws prepared by international bodies and used in such cases, can be relied upon pending such a phase. 15
3. Support the return of legitimate political institutions in the State.
4. Strengthening social stability, including ensuring the return or resettlement of displaced persons and refugees and the resolution of legal problems related to property disputes and the return of returning refugees to their property, Provide the necessary conditions for stability and lay the foundations for the launching of the development process economic growth, market re-creation and sustainable development, This also includes an end to international sanctions that may be imposed in advance on the country if the requirements for their lifting are met.
Although United Nations peace-keeping operations differ from peace-building, the evolution in the nature of these forces has made them eligible for part of the peace-building task. in their traditional sense, such operations were limited to the tasks of separating the different forms of belligerents, However, it has acquired a new multidimensional character under it, enabling it to take the name of 16 multidimensional peace-keeping forces. This is in accordance with the Security Councils mandate to promote certain aspects of the peace-building process that require some specialization by these forces in relation to military and security aspects:
Addressing the issue of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration through nationwide programmes aimed at the reintegration of armed groups that were parties to the conflict, away from their status as ex-combatants, with the expertise of these forces required by this process. Without such programmes, they may turn to organized crime or to the point of forming an armed political opposition that threatens the stability achieved, not to mention the need to reorganize the national armed forces and the national police in a proportionate manner and the new phase to which Society accepts 17.
Demining.
Reform of security sectors and assistance in strengthening the deployment of State authorities.
Assistance in the conduct of electoral processes.
It is noted that the purpose of the activities mentioned is to enable the State to regain its capacity to manage its own affairs and to improve governance. However, this does not negate the coverage of a wide range of targeted aspects, Establishment of Operation 18 to assist groups most affected by the effects of conflict peace-building partners at this stage, such as the United Nations, other regional and international organizations, the States local authorities and the civil society, which play a prominent role in detecting problems and providing solutions at this critical stage and thus represents a genuine partnership between the international and local community, In particular, civil society, which attaches great importance to the concept of peace-building. 19
Peace-building therefore requires more than diplomacy and military action, and hence the expression that describes the peace-building process as operating in a region between immediate relief for post-conflict needs and future development.
For example, in Burundi, peace-building focused on the areas of rational governance, strengthening the rule of law and community recovery, while in Sierra Leone attention was focused on the areas of youth capacity development, employment and reform in the areas of justice and security, rational governance and energy sector development. With regard to the situation in Guinea-Bissau, the organization of the electoral process was one of the most prominent calls for United Nations peace-building work, as well as the promotion of national reconciliation, the fight against trafficking in human beings, drugs and organized crime and the reduction of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.
There was a significant shift in the 1990s from the idea of building peace from top to bottom, in which - building peace from top - outside interventions played the role of an expert by applying their concepts of conflict resolution and ignoring local and national cultures and capacities, in favour of a set of practices and principles referred to in general as building peace from bottom.
The process of bottom-up peace-building means a shift from the perception that the third party is the primary responsibility of external agencies, to an appreciation of the role played by the third party (national) from within rather than by external interveners providing the platform to address the conflict with mediation efforts.
The conclusion of all the above is that all societies and from early history have identified different peacebuilding mechanisms councils of elders, religious leaders or other organized forums, However, the institutionalization of peace-building in the international community began with the founding of the League of Nations. United Nations , and with the end of the Second World War and the establishment of the United Nations, is reinforced by its main objective of supporting and guaranteeing world peace.
PeaceBuilding adopts long-term standards aimed at developing mechanisms for peaceful conflict management, while demonstrating the structural causes of violent conflict.
It can therefore be concluded that peace-building is a multidimensional process, both in terms of which the international community, on the one hand, and the community within the State concerned, and in terms of the fields in which it operates, such as the areas of justice, security sector reform, the foundations of the development process and other areas that impose the reality of each cases need.
Margins:
1. Johan Galtung, born in 1930, is a Norwegian sociologist and mathematician and one of the most important founders of the field of peace and conflict studies, The founder of the Institute for Peace Studies of Oslo in 1959. He remained its director until 1970. He published the Journal of Peace Research in 1964, which was credited with developing many concepts associated with the field of conflict and peace, such as the concepts of structural violence, negative peace, positive peace and the concept of peace-building.
2. Structural violence can be manifested through low wages, illiteracy, poor health and limited legal and political rights. It has been practised by different political and economic cultural structures. Structural violence works slowly but, some say, kills more people in the long run.
3. Wendy Lambourne, Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: Meeting Human Needs for Justice and
Reconciliation, Peace, Conflict and Development – Issue Four, April 2004, p 03.
4. Ibid, p 04.
5. Agenda for Peace, Report of the Secretary-General of 17 June 1992, UN Doc. A/47/277 -S/24111.
A/52/871-S/1998/ 318: Document number United Nations, see. 6
7. This team brought together personalities selected from around the world with expertise and expertise, see United Nations document No. A /59 /565
8. The Peacebuilding Commission was established by the Security Council and the General Assembly in resolutions 1645 (2005) of the Security Council and the General Assembly
decision. 180/60/RES/A, a consultative body whose recommendations carry weight thanks to the breadth and diversity of its membership. This Committee follows both
as a body that makes recommendations as a body of a consultative nature.
9. Thomas J. Biersteker, prospects for the UN peace building commission, The united nations
Peace building commission: origins and initial practice, disarmament forum, 2/2007, p39.
10. Martin Griffiths and Terry OCallahan, Basic Concepts in International Relations, Translation and Publication of Khalej Research Centre
United Arab Emirates, 2008, p. 105.
11. Ibid., p. 106.
12. Ibid., p. 107.
13. See the Secretary-Generals report in the immediate aftermath of conflict, issued on 11/06/2009, document No.
S/2009/304 – S/63/881 :
14. The distinction came from Gareth Evans, Australias former Foreign Minister, in his book:
Cooperation for Peace: Global Programme for the 1990s and beyond, St. Leonards, New South Wales, Australia,
Allen and Unwin, 1993, p. 9-15
15. The Responsibility to Protection, Report of the International Commission on intervention and statessovereignty, December 2001, p15. Available online on the private website of the International Institute of Space Sciences: i. < http://www.iciss.gc.ca/menu-e.asp >
16. David Atwood and Fred Tanner, United Nations Peacebuilding and Geneva International, Consolidated Peacebuilding Commission: Assets and Initial Practice, Op.cit, p. 27.
17. The Responsibility to Protection, op.cit. 43
18 - Daniel:
Peacebuilding strategies: the transition from relief to development: why children and early nterventionmatter, October 2006,
19. Renske Heemskerk, United Nations Peacebuilding and Civil Society Engagement Commission, Consolidated Peacebuilding Commission: Assets and Initial Practice, Op.cit, p14. -
20. Ahmed Mohamed Abd al-Ghaffar, Conflict Resolution in Western Thought and Practice: A Critical and Analytical Study. Book I: Preventive Diplomacy and Peacemaking, Algeria: Dar Hama Printing, Publishing and Distribution 2003, p. 51, 52.
