EU Presidency Statement - Post-Conflict National Reconciliation - The Role of the United Nations

Madame President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Acceding Countries, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, the Candidate Countries, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and the EFTA countries, Iceland and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this statement.

Madame President,

We are again honoured by your presence this morning and we are grateful to Chile for organising this important debate. We also wish to express our appreciation for the thoughtful and informative briefings that Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Tuliameni Kalomoh, Mr. Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of United Nations Development Programme, and Ms. Carolyn McAskie, Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, have given us this morning. Our theme today - the role of the UN in assisting national reconciliation in post-conflict situations - deals, in many ways, with the essence of our aspirations for countries emerging from conflict - that is, the healing of old hurts and a fresh start, based on collective acknowledgement of the past, and some sort of shared vision for the future.

National reconciliation is both a process and the goal.

Many of the issues already or currently being addressed by the Security Council - peace-building, DDR, economic reconstruction, establishment of the rule of law, creation of institutions to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, addressing the issue of impunity - all these must keep in mind that end goal of a new dispensation, where a once divided people can feel their concerns and their needs are acknowledged and addressed. The Council has addressed a number of these interlocking issues, including most recently in September last under the UK Presidency when we examined the issue of justice and the rule of law - the role of the United Nations. The then Presidency of the Council described that meeting as the start of a process. Today we continue that process. We believe that in the future, we could also engage in a dialogue with the Economic and Social Council in furthering this agenda.

Madame President,

Post-conflict situations pose numerous and formidable challenges. The EU believes that only by the adoption of a comprehensive and concerted approach to all peace-building challenges can the process toward longer-term political stability and societal well-being be confidently begun. The United Nations is in a unique position to deliver an integrated approach, bridging political, peacekeeping, humanitarian, human rights, judicial and development actors.

Madame President,

As far back as April 2001, in his report to the Security Council, "No Exit without Strategy: Security Council decision-making and the closure or transition of United Nations peacekeeping operations", the Secretary-General remarked that "reconciliation cannot be imposed". Lasting national reconciliation will always prove elusive without sustained national commitment at governmental and institutional level.

Experience suggests that some broad principles to underpin national reconciliation can be developed, even though their application will have to be tailored to each situation. Among these are:

1. inclusiveness: national reconciliation will not take root if some groups or sections of the population are excluded from the process of nation building. In this regard, greater attention should continue to be paid to the role of women;

2. transparent equality of treatment: it is important that all sections of the population are treated equally before the law, as well as in access to services, such as education, and employment and that the rights of minorities are adequately protected;

3. social and economic integration: for peace to be sustainable, warring factions must be brought together, clear understandings must be reached and integration or re-integration must take place. The focus of DDR programmes is on former combatants. This is painstaking but vitally important work. For reintegration of former combatants to be successful, it is important that measures are taken to stimulate local and national economic activity, to avoid the creation of a vacuum in which illicit activity becomes attractive. It is equally important, in this regard, that attention is paid to the legitimate economic and social needs of civilian populations, whose lives and livelihoods have often been destroyed as a result of conflict. Equitable sharing of resources between communities may also be mentioned in this context;

4. reform of institutions: this is necessary to ensure that inequalities of the past are not repeated;

5. constitutional reform: in many cases, a new beginning will require fundamental rewriting of an existing constitution or the elaboration of a new constitution;

6. healing: fully normalised circumstances cannot be realized in the absence of a firm resolve to heal the psychological wounds inflicted during times of conflict. Crucially, transitional justice mechanisms, as the Secretary-General observed last September "need to concentrate not only on individual responsibility for serious crimes, but also on the need to achieve national reconciliation".

7. promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms: provision for human rights education and the raising of public awareness should be considered;

8. parity of esteem: in many cases, it may be necessary to adopt measures to ensure that differences of ethnicity, culture or religious traditions are acknowledged and respected;

9. reconciliation programmes which acknowledge and address the suffering of the victims of violence as a necessary element of reconciliation: naturally these may take various forms and the particular circumstances in the affected country need to be taken into account, and

10. post conflict environmental assessment: analysing the environmental effects of conflicts is also important for national reconciliation, and its neglect could cause delay in the reconstruction process. In this context, the EU recognises the important role played by UNEP.

In concrete terms, two aspects of the UN's continued dedication to the cause of national reconciliation might be mentioned:

Firstly, national reconciliation is a primary objective in UN peacekeeping and peace-building operations in post-conflict states. Many peacekeeping or peace-building operations may be mentioned in this context - Angola, Afghanistan, East Timor, Kosovo and Burundi and the engagement of the Security Council in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire are some examples in this regard. There are still challenges of enhanced cooperation and coordination among the relevant United Nations actors at the field level, in particular between the political and the development actors. We therefore urge the various entities of the United Nations to continue efforts of enhanced collaboration and that aspects of national reconciliation become integral parts of collective UN country strategies. In this regard, we would also highlight the need for enhanced cooperation with the Bretton Woods institutions. For the donor community, a particular challenge is the provision of adequate financial resources during the transition phase.

Secondly, genuine national reconciliation is often beyond reach unless those responsible for egregious crimes are held to account. The ongoing work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the initiative to prosecute former members of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and the judicial mechanisms put in place in post-conflict East Timor and Kosovo are testimony to the UN's firm belief in and commitment to this aspect of fostering national reconciliation.

However, it is worth bearing in mind the note of caution expressed last September by the Secretary-General to the effect that, at times, attempts to balance the demands of peace and justice can pose a difficult dilemma. Ultimately, each society needs to form its own view about how to strike the right balance between the goals of penal justice and reconciliation.

While a balance must be struck, the EU also agrees with the Secretary-General that there should be no granting of amnesties for war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity or other serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.

Many member states of the EU have actively contributed to the establishment and proper functioning of the International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague and Arusha, from the time of their inception. Recognizing its importance, the European Commission has recently made a contribution to the Special Court for Sierra Leone. A number of EU member states have also contributed significant amounts in their own right to the Special Court. The EU has, in addition, offered both political and financial support to national truth and reconciliation Commissions and initiatives in a number of UN Member States.

The EU also strongly believes that the International Criminal Court provides a powerful, permanent instrument of deterrence against genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The EU remains firmly committed to the Court's effective functioning, being of the view that as well as providing a powerful deterrent to future would-be tyrants, it is also an essential means of promoting respect for international humanitarian law and human rights law, thus contributing to freedom, security, justice and the rule of law as well as to the preservation of peace and strengthening of international security.

The main burden, however, for prosecuting those responsible for atrocities will have to be carried by domestic legal systems. The restoration of domestic legal systems and support for domestic legal prosecutions is therefore a crucial task for the international community in post-conflict situations as well as in countries at risk.

Because of its nature, reconciliation relates closely to, or includes, the issue of justice. It is also difficult to address reconciliation without taking into account the rule of law, not least from a preventative perspective. The EU therefore believes that the report being prepared by the Secretary-General as a follow-up to the Security Council debate in September - Justice and the Rule of Law: the Role of the UN - could benefit from taking into account some of the observations articulated today.

Finally, Madame President, in an address to the Commissioners of East Timor's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in May 2002, the late Sergio Vieira de Mello stated:

"You have been called to help reconcile the divisions and hurt amongst your people. No task is more crucial if a society split by terror and politics is to regenerate and become a place when human dignity is respected."

By its very nature, national reconciliation is one of the more tortuous and protracted challenges confronting post-conflict states. If painful political experience has taught us one thing, however, it is that the cathartic process of national reconciliation is a sine qua non for achieving lasting stability.

Thank you, Madame President.

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• EU Presidency Declaration on the Somali National Reconciliation Process (16/12/2003)