1. From Conflict Prevention &
Peacekeeping to Peacebuilding
The Challenges of
Rebuilding a Just Peace
Dr. Rama Mani
MEDIA WORKSHOP
18 MAY 2009

2. ‘Peacemaking, Peacekeeping’ &
‘Peacebuilding’
Distinct & Linear or Overlapping?
Boutros Boutros-Ghali – Agenda for Peace
1992/95:
(Preventive Diplomacy)
Peacemaking
Peacekeeping
Peacebuilding
Increasing overlap since 1990s –

3. Post-Conflict ‘Peacebuilding’
Defined
“PEACEBUILDING: ‘actions taken to identify and support
structures which will tend to strengthen and solidify peace in
order to avoid a relapse into conflict’
(Boutros Boutros-Ghali – Agenda for Peace (1992):
“By post-conflict peace-building, I mean actions undertaken
at the end of a conflict to consolidate peace and prevent a
recurrence of armed confrontation.”
(Kofi Annan, Report, “The Causes of Conflict and the
Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development
in Africa”, 1998)

4. Peacebuilding cannot be divorced from
Nature of Conflict , conflict prevention &
Peacemaking processes
Conflicts today: though lowest level, brutal,
complex, internal-internationalised, with
entrenched war economies. Endemic Violence
‘Culture of prevention’ not inculcated: remains
rare, invisible, incomplete: focus on
‘operational prevention’ and to some extent on
‘structural prevention’ but not systemic.
Peacemaking processes: despite ‘industry’ of
mediators, remains exclusive, elitist,
incomplete, unaccountable. Frequent relapse.
MEDIA MUST TAKE MORE INTEREST: make
conflict prevention visible, scrutinise – and
criticise – mediators mediators, support &
critique international peacebuilders, nurture

5. Peacebuilding in
Practice: Dual
Interdependent
Objective
Short term security & long term
consolidation
Balancing ‘Positive’ and ‘Negative’ Peace
• ‘Negative Peace’: the cessation of hostilities
and direct violence
• ‘Positive Peace’: the consolidation of peace
through structural change, to avoid relapse
• Not a trade-off – but a careful balance

6. Nature of Post-Conflict Peacebuilding
Dynamic process
twinned objective: Balancing security and
consolidation; short and long term exigencies
Identifies and eliminates causes
Inherently political, not technical task
Social process – rebuilds relationships
Inclusive, rebuilds inclusive political, social and
‘moral’ community of ‘survivors’

7. Peacebuilding’s Multiple Objectives:
Providing security
Demilitarising society: DDR,
Security Sector Reform –
separating police and military
Accountability: Reversing impunity,
Transitional justice, reconciliation
Human Rights, women’s, child, minorities
(promoting gender and ethnic balance)

8. Multiple tasks:
Rebuilding rule of law; judiciary, police, prisons
State building: governance, institutions
Democratising society, civic participation
Elections and Constitution Building,
Statebuilding
Strengthening Civil Society
Fostering economic and social development (equity)
Overcoming war economies, fighting crime and
corruption
Humanitarian: Caring for Refugees, internally
displaced, handicapped.

9. How to confront these
challenges?
No magic formula: riddled with dilemmas, no
easy decisions
One simple lesson – “Peace without Justice is
only a symbolic peace”
‘Accountable’, ‘Inclusive’ and ‘Just’ are key
words. Ie peacebuilding is not only about
‘security’, ‘power-sharing’ and ‘elections’,
important though they are.
Critically important that the peace being built
is seen to be ‘just’ in the eyes of the population
and ‘inclusive’ of all parties, stakeholders and
communities – not only warlords and elites.

10. How to build a Just Peace?
Start by understanding that
Injustice is embedded in all phases of Conflict
CAUSES: Real and perceived inequality
between groups, exclusion and
marginalisation (political, econ,
religious, ethnic, racial)
SYMPTOMS: Manipulation, corruption or breakdown
of legal justice & rule of law; no legal
redress to grievances
CONSEQUENCES: war crimes, crimes against
humanity, ethnic cleansing,
discrimination, displacement, looting,
war economies

11. THREE Dimensions of Justice
to address simultaneously
DISTRIBUTIVE or ‘SOCIAL’ JUSTICE
(addressing underlying CAUSES of conflict)
LEGAL JUSTICE/Rule of Law (addressing the
SYMPTOMS, regenerating the rule of law)
RECTIFICATORY JUSTICE (redressing the
CONSEQUENCES of war crimes) – traditional focus
of ‘Transitional Justice’

12. 3 Dimensions of Justice:
Distinct but Inter-dependent
Varying priorities
(eg Rwanda, vs Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka)
Different time frames and exigencies
(eg Cambodia, Namibia, vs Zimbabwe)
Inter-dependent and mutually
reinforcing

13. Justice is Implicit in and Essential
to all Dimensions of Peacebuilding
Rule of Law is a both a Security and
Governance priority
Rectificatory justice is both a Security
and Human Rights Priority.
Distributive Justice is a Development
priority, and only way to avoid relapse,
and ensure sustainability of peace.

14. A Strategic Framework for
Achieving Just Peace
Hence a STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK for JUST
PEACE would embed justice in all 4 dimensions of
peacebuilding: I.e.
1. Security 2. Governance
3. Human Rights 4. Development
Ie Strategic Peacebuilding must combine
‘what is right and what is stable’, long & short term.
It must balance Negative & Positive Peace
It must work at all levels from grassroot to national,
regional and international.

15. EASIER SAID THAN DONE….
Riddled with Dilemmas & Hurdles!
Balancing Negative and Positive Peace isn’t so
easy!
Threat of return to violence by military and
armed groups (Latin America, Haiti, Angola, SL)
Resistance to rule of law change by powerful
political, economic and military elite (el
Salvador, Guatemala)
Resistance to economic redistribution by
economic and political elites (El Salvador)
Competing Post-conflict/transition priorities

16. Rule of Law – the new panacea –
but what does it really MEAN?
Secretary-General:
‘It refers to a principle of governance in
which all persons, institutions and
entities, public and private, including
the state itself, are accountable to laws
that are publicly promulgated, equally
enforced, and independently
adjudicated, and which are consistent
with international human rights norms
and standards.’

17. Rule of Law: Judiciary, Police, Prisons
Challenges Responses
Form over substance Ethos of law is more
important than form.
Imposing foreign laws. Incorporate acceptable
Ignoring customary customary laws. Only
laws and traditional Resonant and just laws
practices will be observed by
Technical vs Politically- locals.
sensitive approach Politically savvy
‘1 size fits all’ Adapt, learn from locals
Order over justice (SSR) Order without justice
backfires
Reductionist, minimalist
Incremental
maximalism: high vision
but step by step

18. Rectificatory or
‘Transitional’ Justice – in vogue
MECHANISMS:
1. TRIALS Focusing on perpetrators:
2. TRUTH Commissions: Focusing on Victims
3. LUSTRATION/VETTING (East, Central Europe)
4. INSITUTIONAL REFORM (ROL, SSR) None is
perfect! Or Sufficient alone!
Observations & Lessons:
Still ‘Victors’ justice’: need for consistency.
Internationally determined/funded: id. local
wishes
Single Template, standard solutions imposed:
need diverse, ‘home-grown’, innovative
approaches.
Survivor oriented ‘Reparative’ vs retributive
Justice

19. No peace without social justice
So far social justice – addressing the
structural injustices and systemic
inequalities that often caused the
conflict – was largely ignored.
Today populations are insisting that
social justice, as also war economies,
corruption and violent crime be
addressed as central elements of
peacebuilding.

20. Orient PC reconstruction around Social
& Distributive Justice
Errors & Problems: Responses
Looking forward as if Look Back before
past didn’t exist Looking Forward
Addressing effects but Address causes &
ignoring causes inequities ALONGSIDE
Washington consensus material effects
Pursuing growth, Seek Economic Growth
overlooking equity WITH Equity,
Dangers of privatisation, redistribution
liberalisation… Pursue political AND
Placating the elite, economic stabilisation
angering the masses Heed demands & needs of
the local population, not

21. The Rough Ride of Post-Conflict
Peacebuilding – 1989-2005
Namibia to Iraq: Relatively Simple to
Increasingly Complex
Period of dynamic changes, expansion,
adaptation
Many ‘lessons learned’
But many costly mistakes made –
Glass Half-full or half empty viz relapse into
conflict
Dilemmas, tough choices, tradeoffs

22. 60th Anniversary: The Call for a
Peacebuilding Commission
“If we are going to prevent conflict we must ensure that
peace agreements are implemented in a sustained and
sustainable manner. (…)
No part of the United Nations system effectively
addresses the challenge of helping countries with the
transition from war to lasting peace.
I therefore propose to Member States that they
create an intergovernmental Peacebuilding
Commission, as well as a Peacebuilding Support
Office within the United Nations Secretariat, to
achieve this end.”
(Kofi Annan, Report, “In Larger Freedom: Towards
Development, Security and Human Rights for All”,
March 2005)

23. Establishment of the UN
Peacebuilding Commission
(2005 World Summit Outcome (§ 98)):
“The main purpose of the Peacebuilding Commission is to
bring together all relevant actors to marshal resources
and to advise on and propose integrated strategies for
post-conflict peacebuilding and recovery.
The Commission should focus attention on the
reconstruction and institution-building efforts necessary
for recovery from conflict and support the development
of integrated strategies in order to lay the foundation for
sustainable development.
In addition, it should provide recommendations and
information to improve the coordination of all relevant
actors within and outside the United Nations, develop
best practices, help to ensure predictable financing for
early recovery activities and extend the period of
attention by the international community to post-conflict
recovery.
NB CONFLICT PREVENTION EXCLUDED!

24. 2. The UN Peacebuilding
Commission
Agenda
The Commission provides advice to the Security
Council, ECOSOC, Member States or the
Secretary-General.
The Commission deals only with countries
emerging from conflict, once a peace accord has
been concluded and a minimum degree of
security exists.
Countries are expected to express an interest in
appearing before the Commission.
Burundi, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau are
now on the agenda of the Commission.
Possible addition: Central African Republic.

25. Healthy media crucial for building lasting
peace in post-conflict States Conf. 12/12/08
Amb Takasu(Japan) Chair of the Peacebuilding
Commission, told the meeting that the Commission
needed the media as a partner at the local, national and
international level to generate attention and mobilize
support towards countries emerging from conflict.
“a media environment conducive to independent and
accessible media can build public will and hold
governments accountable to their citizens.”
Delegates focused discussions on how the media has
promoted and strengthened governance and democracy
in countries coming out of conflict, reviewing past
efforts as well as examining current initiatives and
exploring possibilities for future action.

26. Observations & Lessons
UNPBC is not panacea or miracle cure
‘Obsolescing Welcome ‘of International
intervention and peacekeeping forces
Peace Agreements often fail as incomplete
Violence in many forms in Post conflict
societies
Despite efforts/expenditures, donors
frustrated: lack coherence, coordination,
complementarity.
Problem is too many tasks without unified
strategic objective

27. The Way Forward:
Make Peacebuilding’s objective: ‘inclusive just
peace’
Make peacemaking more inclusive,
accountable
Invest ‘Ownership’ in all sectors of local
population not just warlords, political,
economic elite
All ‘survivors’ must come together to rebuild
an inclusive viable political and civic
community: not just victors or beneficiaries;
perpetrators, or victims.
Accountability of international AND local
community
Peacebuilding divorced from peacemaking and
conflict prevention cant work.

28. Media’s role in prevention, peacemaking
and peacebuilding
MEDIA, local and international, has a major role
to play to question & enlighten, to awaken &
mobilise.
Make conflict prevention visible: highlight
unheard of success stories; underline systemic
prevention; structural causes of violence
Scrutinise mediators and peace processes: insist
on inclusion of women, civilians, & accountability.
Support – and critique – local and international
peacebuilders. Report successes not only failures.
Media can and must once again become the
conscience of a society that today is over-
informed but lacking in wisdom and
understanding.
It is the Media that can and must make visible
what is invisible, speak aloud what is whispered