UN Panel Sees Peacekeeping Recommendations in Right DirectionA UN panel said on Wednesday that its recommendations to change the structures and management of U.N. peacekeeping operations was in the right direction.Launching a report which made specific and concrete recommendations to reform the UN peacekeeping operations, Lakhdar Brahimi, head of the panel on UN peacekeeping operations, said: "The report is the work of a group of people firmly committed to the United Nations and highly conscious of the indispensable role the Organization must continue to play if peace is to be maintained and reinforced among nations and within nations." At the moment, the United Nations cannot play that role fully due to the limitation of its functions, Brahimi said. "The United Nations is doing a very good job indeed. But I am confident that it can do it better if the will is there," he said. "We feel that our recommendations could be the first step, indeed an important one, in the right direction," he noted. The member states, the Secretary-General and many senior officials at the United Nations system had identified the recommendations as necessary and urgent to reform the system, he added. Chaired by Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister, the panel included members from all six continents, with wide experience in humanitarian, development and police work as well as military peacekeeping. In its report, the panel recommended extensive restructuring of the Department of Peacekeeping operations, a new information and strategic analysis unit to service all United Nations departments concerned with peace and security, an integrated task force at Headquarters to plan and support each peacekeeping mission from its inception and more systematic use of information technology. The recommendations will be considered at the Millennium Summit to be held from September 6 to 8 at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York. |
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