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AU stresses partnership with UN on peace, security

Xinhua, February 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

The African Union (AU) on Thursday stressed the need to an enhanced and forward looking partnership with the United Nations (UN) in the promotion of peace and security in Africa.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the AU Commission, has met and exchanged views with the UN High-Level Panel on Peace Operations, which is chaired by former East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta, according to an AU statement.

While visiting Addis Ababa to undertake consultations with AU and other African stakeholders, the UN High-Level Panel on Tuesday met and held talks with Dlamini-Zuma in Ethiopia's capital, according to the statement.

The UN High-Level Panel has been established by UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon to undertake a review of peace operations to ensure that they are able to address the challenges facing the world.

In her exchanges with the High-Level Panel, Dlamini-Zuma reaffirmed that all African interventions towards the maintenance of peace and security are guided by the principle of the primacy of the UN Security Council in the maintenance of international peace and security.

The chairperson outlined that, in the years since the establishment of the AU in 2002, the world has witnessed significant changes in the international political order, and the AU has become an important player in African peace and security affairs.

In this context, a division of responsibility is beginning to emerge, in which the AU intervenes as a first responder in the stabilization of conflict situations, laying the groundwork for the UN to deploy peace operations at a later stage.

She stressed the importance of strengthening the emerging partnership, which represents an asset both to the UN and to the people of Africa.

Ensuring regular consultation between the two organizations from the earliest stages of crisis and conflict would be the most important way to strengthen partnership, she said and highlighted the need for regular consultations between the UN Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC), as the mandating bodies of their respective organizations.

The chairperson said that peacekeeping on its own was only one element in the restoration of peace and security to countries in conflict.

A long-term strategy would have to address the underlying causes of conflict, including socio-economic marginalization, the issue of natural resources, the management of diversity and governance.

Such a strategy would also have to pay particular attention to the role of women in the resolution of conflicts, and identify ways in which to promote the effective implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), she noted.

The High-Level Panel commended the chairperson for the appointment of an AU Special Envoy for Women, Peace and Security, according to the statement.

The chairperson informed the High-Level Panel that, in line with the decision adopted by the 24th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union, held from Jan. 30-31 in 2015, the AU would be preparing an African Common Position on peace operations that it would submit to the Panel for its consideration.

Upon the specific request of the High-Level Panel, the chairperson made the commitment that the African Common Position would include specific concrete recommendations on ways in which to advance the implementation of Resolution 1325 (2000). Endi