Chapter I
International peace and security The year 2009 brought new challenges for international peace and security, as the United Nations worked to address several conflict situations, mainly in Africa, and further incidents of international terrorism, while supporting the efforts of post-conflict countries to sustain peace and stability, rebuild national institutions and restore economic development. The Security Council took forward the reform of peacekeeping operations and debated ways to strengthen collective security, stressing the role of mediation in settling disputes. It also reviewed measures to ensure the protection of civilians in armed conflict and met regularly with troop-contributing countries with respect to ongoing peacekeeping operations. The Peacebuilding Commission enhanced its efforts in support of countries emerging from conflict, including through its country configurations relating to Burundi, the Central African Republic, GuineaBissau and Sierra Leone. During the year, the United Nations maintained 12 political and peacebuilding missions and offices. The United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia ceased to exist on 15 June, after the Russian Federation vetoed a technical roll-over for the mission. At the end of 2009, there were 15 peacekeeping operations, served by 119,577 uniformed and civilian personnel. The scale and frequency of international terrorist acts continued, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians and injuries to many others. In addition to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, areas affected included Iran, Indonesia and Somalia. A suicide bomb attack in Islamabad on 5 October killed five World Food Programme staff members, and a Taliban attack in Kabul on 28 October killed five UN staff members. The Council issued statements condemning those attacks as unacceptable and unjustifiable. The General Assembly in December requested that the Secretary-General provide the resources necessary to finalize the institutionalization of the CounterTerrorism Implementation Task Force, in order to ensure coordination and coherence in the counterterrorism efforts of the UN system. During the year, the Council also issued statements on mediation and dispute settlement, post-conflict peacebuilding, civilians in armed conflict and the conduct of peacekeeping operations. In November, it adopted a resolution on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, in which it demanded that parties to a conflict comply with their obligations under
international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law, urging them to take all measures required to respect the civilian population. By a resolution on conflict diamonds, the General Assembly reaffirmed its support for the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme and for the Kimberley Process as a whole. By a resolution on the Peacebuilding Fund, it affirmed the respective roles of the General Assembly, the Peacebuilding Commission and the independent Advisory Group to provide policy guidance on the use of the Fund to maximize its impact and improve its functioning. The Assembly also adopted texts on a comprehensive review of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects, the peacekeeping support account, the scale of assessments for apportioning the expenses of peacekeeping operations, rates of reimbursement to troop-contributing countries, the financing of the United Nations Logistics Base at Brindisi, criminal accountability of UN officials and experts on missions, and the responsibility to protect. Regarding the financial position of UN peacekeeping operations, expenditures rose by 13.6 per cent, from $6,265.8 million to $7,120.6 million for the 2008/09 financial year. The increase was mainly due to the expansion of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad and the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Unpaid assessed contributions decreased by 5 per cent to $967.5 million.
Promotion of international peace and security Maintenance of international peace and security Security sector reform Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations consideration. During its 2009 substantive session (New York, 23 February–20 March) [A/63/19], the Special Committee said that UN assistance for security sector reform through peacekeeping missions should be undertaken at the request of the host country. In post-conflict countries, such reform was normally a long-term process, rooted in the needs 37