Documento(s) 7 de 12

POST-INTERVENTION OBLIGATIONS

Peace Building

5.1 The responsibility to protect implies the responsibility not just to prevent and react, but to follow through and rebuild. This means that if military intervention action is taken — because of a breakdown or abdication of a state's own capacity and authority in discharging its "responsibility to protect" — there should be a genuine commitment to helping to build a durable peace, and promoting good governance and sustainable development. Conditions of public safety and order have to be reconstituted by international agents acting in partnership with local authorities, with the goal of progressively transferring to them authority and responsibility to rebuild.

5.2 Ensuring sustainable reconstruction and rehabilitation will involve the commitment of sufficient funds and resources and close cooperation with local people, and may mean staying in the country for some period of time after the initial purposes of the intervention have been accomplished. Too often in the past the responsibility to rebuild has been insufficiently recognized, the exit of the interveners has been poorly managed, the commitment to help with reconstruction has been inadequate, and countries have found themselves at the end of the day still wrestling with the underlying problems that produced the original intervention action.

5.3 If military intervention is to be contemplated, the need for a post-intervention strategy is also of paramount importance. Military intervention is one instrument in a broader spectrum of tools designed to prevent conflicts and humanitarian emergencies from arising, intensifying, spreading, persisting or recurring. The objective of such a strategy must be to help ensure that the conditions that prompted the military intervention do not repeat themselves or simply resurface.

5.4 The most successful reconciliation processes do not necessarily occur at high level political dialogue tables, or in judicial-style processes (though we well understand the positive role that truth and reconciliation commissions can play in certain post-conflict environments). True reconciliation is best generated by ground level reconstruction efforts, when former armed adversaries join hands in rebuilding their community or creating reasonable living and job conditions at new settlements. True and lasting reconciliation occurs with sustained daily efforts at repairing infrastructure, at rebuilding housing, at planting and harvesting, and cooperating in other productive activities. External support for reconciliation efforts must be conscious of the need to encourage this cooperation, and dynamically linked to joint development efforts between former adversaries.

5.5 The Secretary-General described very clearly the nature of and rationale for post-conflict peace building in his 1998 report on The Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa:

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. Experience has shown that the consolidation of peace in the aftermath of conflict requires more than purely diplomatic and military action, and that an integrated peace building effort is needed to address the various factors which have caused or are threatening a conflict. Peace building may involve the creation or strengthening of national institutions, monitoring elections, promoting human rights, providing for reintegration and rehabilitation programmes, as well as creating conditions for resumed development. Peace building does not replace ongoing humanitarian and development activities in countries emerging from crises. Rather it aims to build on, add to, or reorient such activities in ways that are designed to reduce the risk of a resumption of conflict and contribute to creating conditions most conducive to reconciliation, reconstruction and recovery.

5.6 The Secretary-General's report goes on to describe in more detail what is needed in the aftermath of conflict, or in this case intervention:

Societies which have emerged from conflict have special needs. To avoid a return to conflict while laying a solid foundation for development, emphasis must be placed on critical priorities such as encouraging reconciliation and demonstrating respect for human rights; fostering political inclusiveness and promoting national unity; ensuring the safe, smooth and early repatriation and resettlement of refugees and displaced persons; reintegrating ex-combatants and others into productive society; curtailing the availability of small arms; and mobilizing the domestic and international resources for reconstruction and economic recovery. Each priority is linked to every other, and success will require a concerted and coordinated effort on all fronts.

The message is clear. There is no substitute for a clear and effective post-intervention strategy.

5.7 In what follows, we briefly review some of the main issues that confront policy makers in exercising the responsibility to rebuild in the three most immediately crucial areas of security, justice and economic development. In Chapter 7, dealing with operational issues, we revisit a number of these matters from the perspective of the military forces on the ground in post-intervention environments.

Security

5.8 One of the essential functions of an intervention force is to provide basic security and protection for all members of a population, regardless of ethnic origin or relation to the previous source of power in the territory. In post-conflict situations, revenge killings and even "reverse ethnic cleansing" frequently occur as groups who were victimized attack groups associated with their former oppressors. It is essential that post-intervention operations plan for this contingency before entry and provide effective security for all populations, regardless of origin, once entry occurs. There can be no such thing as "guilty minorities" in the post-intervention phase. Everyone is entitled to basic protection for their lives and property.

5.9 One of the most difficult and important issues to be regularly confronted in the post-intervention phase relates to the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of local security forces. Reintegration will usually take the longest time to achieve, but the whole process cannot be judged to have been successful until it is complete. It is also a necessary element of returning a country to law and order since a demobilized soldier, unless properly reintegrated into society, with sustainable income, will probably turn to armed crime or armed political opposition. Successful disarmament of personnel from military and security forces, and other efforts to collect small arms and curb the entry of new ones, will be an important element of this effort.

5.10 Another element of the same problem is the rebuilding of new national armed forces and police, integrating as far as possible elements of the formerly competing armed factions or military forces. This proces will be vital to national reconciliation and protection of the re-established state once the intervening forces leave. However, all too often in the past, in Cambodia and elsewhere, it has proved to be too long-term for the intervening authorities, and too expensive and sensitive for international donors who wish to avoid later accusations of re-arming former enemies.

5.11 Complaints are regularly heard from military officers around the world that in interventions and their aftermath they are all too often given functions for which they are not trained and which are more appropriate to police. The simple answer is that civilian police are really only able to operate in countries where functioning systems of law and courts exist. Although the presence of some police in any military operation may be necessary from the start, including for the purpose of training local police, there is probably little alternative to the current practice of deploying largely military forces at the start, but as conditions improve and governmental institutions are rebuilt, phasing in a civilian police presence.

5.12 An essential part of pre-intervention planning has been identified by both political and military personnel as being an exit strategy (not the same thing as an exit timetable) for intervening troops. There is force in the argument that without such a strategy there are serious risks in mounting any military intervention at all, as an unplanned, let alone precipitate, exit could have disastrous, or at best unsettling, implications for the country, and could also serve to discredit even the positive aspects of the intervention itself.

Justice and Reconciliation

5.13 In many cases the country in which a military intervention takes place may never have enjoyed a non-corrupt or properly functioning judicial system, including both the courts and police, or this may have deteriorated or disappeared as the state itself began to fail. Increasingly, and particularly from the time of the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) in the early 1990s, there has been a realization in UN circles and elsewhere about the importance of making transitional arrangements for justice during an operation, and restoring judicial systems as soon as possible thereafter. The point is simply that if an intervening force has a mandate to guard against further human rights violations, but there is no functioning system to bring violators to justice, then not only is the force's mandate to that extent unachievable, but its whole operation is likely to have diminished credibility both locally and internationally.

5.14 A number of non-governmental bodies have developed "justice packages," which can be adapted to the specific conditions of a wide variety of operations, and these should be considered an integral part of any post-intervention peace building strategy, pending the re-establishment of local institutions. Such measures should include a standard model penal code, able to be used in any situation where there is no appropriate existing body of law to apply, and applied immediately the intervention begins to ensure protection of minorities and allow intervening forces to detain persons committing crimes.

5.15 A related issue is that of the return of refugees and the legal rights of returnees from ethnic or other minorities. Unequal treatment in the provision of basic services, repatriation assistance and employment, and property laws, are often designed to send a powerful signal that returnees are not welcome. Discrimination in the provision of reconstruction assistance has been a major problem in Croatia, for instance, where it was enshrined in law. In many cases around the world, attempts by returnees to use the courts to evict temporary occupants (often themselves refugees) from their homes and regain rightful property have ended in frustration rather than re-possession. Laws either provide inadequate protection of property rights or were framed to deter potential returnees and disadvantage those who do return.

5.16 Barriers include difficulties in establishing tenancy rights over formerly socially-owned property, the main form of property holding in former Yugoslavia, for example; the absence of legal documentation; and continued obstructionism by local authorities. The problem of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) seeking to reclaim their property has been particularly acute in urban areas. Political pressure to relocate other families in vacated premises has often obstructed returns and little progress has been made in revising the legal rights of urban tenants.

5.17 Facilitating returns requires the removal of the administrative and bureaucratic obstacles to return, ending the culture of impunity vis-à-vis known or suspected war criminals and the adoption of non-discriminatory property laws. However, evictions alone will not solve all the returns issues. A sizeable amount of new housing stock will usually need to be built throughout the country and donor funded projects are critical in meeting these needs.

5.18 Additionally, the question of return sustainability — pivotal to ensuring the long-term success of repatriation — will need to be properly treated. Return sustainability is about creating the right social and economic conditions for returnees. It also includes access to health, education and basic services, and is linked to reform in other areas — eradicating corruption, promoting good governance, and long-term economic regeneration of the country.

Development

5.19 A final peace building responsibility of any military intervention should be as far as possible to encourage economic growth, the recreation of markets and sustainable development. The issues are extremely important, as economic growth not only has law and order implications but is vital to the overall recovery of the country concerned. A consistent corollary of this objective must be for the intervening authorities to find a basis as soon as possible to end any coercive economic measures they may have applied to the country before or during the intervention, and not prolong comprehensive or punitive sanctions.

5.20 Intervening authorities have a particular responsibility to manage as swiftly and smoothly as possible the transfer of development responsibility and project implementation to local leadership, and local actors working with the assistance of national and international development agencies.

5.21 This is not only of importance for long-term development purposes, but also represents a positive reinforcement for short run security measures of the kind discussed above: a positive contribution is provided by a simultaneous effort at training the demobilized for new income generating activities as well as the implementation of social and economic reintegration projects. The sooner the demobilized combatants are aware of their future options and opportunities, and the sooner the community has concrete and tangible demonstrations that civilian life can in fact return to normality under secure conditions, the more positive will be their response in relation to disarmament and related issues.

ADMINISTRATION UNDER UN AUTHORITY

5.22 Useful guidelines for the behaviour of intervening authorities during a military intervention in failed states, and in the follow-up period, might be found in a constructive adaptation of Chapter XII of the UN Charter. This would enable reconstruction and rehabilitation to take place in an orderly way across the full spectrum, with the support and assistance of the international community. The most relevant provision in this regard is Article 76 which notes that the aim of the system is to promote the political, economic, social and educational advancement of the people of the territory in question; to encourage respect for human rights; to ensure the equal treatment of all peoples in the UN in social, economic and commercial matters; and also to ensure equal treatment in the administration of justice.

5.23 A further element of Chapter XII which would often be of relevance to the populations of countries in which an intervention takes place relates to self-determination (Article 76.b). Protective enforcement usually indicates sustaining or restoring forms of territorial self-government and autonomy, and this in turn will usually mean elections being facilitated and possibly supervised, or at least monitored, by the intervening authorities. That said, the responsibility to protect is fundamentally a principle designed to respond to threats to human life, and not a tool for achieving political goals such as greater political autonomy, self-determination, or independence for particular groups within the country (though these underlying issues may well be related to the humanitarian concerns that prompted the military intervention). The intervention itself should not become the basis for further separatist claims.

5.24 There is always likely in the UN to be a generalized resistance to any resurrection of the "trusteeship" concept, on the ground that it represents just another kind of intrusion into internal affairs. But "failed states" are quite likely to generate situations which the international community simply cannot ignore, as happened — although there the intervention was less than successful — in Somalia. The strongest argument against the proposal is probably practical: the cost of such an operation for the necessarily long time it would take to recreate civil society and rehabilitate the infrastructure in such a state. There must be real doubts about the willingness of governments to provide those kinds of resources, other than on a very infrequent and ad hoc basis.

LOCAL OWNERSHIP AND THE LIMITS TO OCCUPATION

5.25 The requirement to stay on in the country in which intervention takes place long enough to ensure sustainable reconstruction and rehabilitation has both positive and negative implications. Apart from, hopefully, removing or at least greatly ameliorating, the root causes of the original conflict and restoring a measure of good governance and economic stability, such a period may also better accustom the population to democratic institutions and processes if these had been previously missing from their country. However, staying on could obviously have some negative aspects, and they are worth spelling out.

Sovereignty

5.26 Sovereignty issues necessarily arise with any continued presence by the intervener in the target country in the follow-up period. Intervention suspends sovereignty claims to the extent that good governance — as well as peace and stability — cannot be promoted or restored unless the intervener has authority over a territory. But the suspension of the exercise of sovereignty is only de facto for the period of the intervention and follow-up, and not de jure. This was, for example, the objective of the Paris Accords of 1991 on Cambodia, where the device of a "Supreme National Council" with representatives of the four competing factions, transferred effective authority to the UN to run the country until elections could be held. Similarly, Yugoslavia could be said to have temporarily had its sovereignty over Kosovo suspended, though it has not lost it de jure. The objective overall is not to change constitutional arrangements, but to protect them. As was noted in the discussion above of trusteeship, military intervention means endeavouring to sustain forms of government compatible with the sovereignty of the state in which the enforcement has occurred — not undermining that sovereignty.

Dependency and Distortion

5.27 A poorly administered occupation which overtly treats the people, or causes them to believe they are being treated, as an "enemy" will obviously be inimical to the success of any long-term rehabilitation efforts. Equally, a reconstruction and rehabilitation programme which does not take sufficient account of local priorities and excludes local personnel could create an unhealthy dependency on the intervening authority, stultify the regrowth of local institutions and the economy, and infinitely delay the population's desire or ability to resume responsibility for its own government.

5.28 Although largely unavoidable, the sudden influx of large sums of foreign currencies that usually accompany an intervening military force (and subsequent police and administration personnel) can have highly distorting economic effects on often fragile economies, and create unrealistic expectations in at least parts of the population. In some cases, local elites may seek to profit from this situation and set up corrupt networks and practices. They are then likely to oppose early withdrawal of the intervening authority, while at the same time undermining any hopes for a successful economic and political rehabilitation of the country.

5.29 A further negative feature relates to the intervening authorities themselves. The longer a follow-up period continues, the greater the financial and material drain it may prove to be on the intervening states, unless they are among the richer developed countries. Even then, follow-up with no light at the end of the tunnel may prove to be a major disincentive for such countries to become involved in future exercises of the responsibility to protect, regardless of how worthy they might be. The balance to be struck between the long-term interests of the people and country where the intervention takes place and those of the interveners themselves can end up being a fine one.

Achieving Local Ownership

5.30 As the case of Kosovo demonstrates, it is essential to strike a balance between the responsibilities of international and local actors. International actors have the resources to help provide a secure environment and to begin the reconstruction process. But international authorities must take care not to confiscate or monopolize political responsibility on the ground. They must take steps to set up a political process between the conflicting parties and ethnic groups in a post-conflict society that develops local political competence within a framework that encourages cooperation between former antagonists. Without such a political process, and the transfer of responsibility from international to local agents, there is a substantial risk, first, that ethnic hostility within the territory will settle back into old patterns of hatred, and second, that local actors will sit back and let the international actors take all the responsibility for mediating local tensions.

5.31 The long-term aim of international actors in a post-conflict situation is "to do themselves out of a job." They can do this by creating political processes which require local actors to take over responsibility both for rebuilding their society and for creating patterns of cooperation between antagonistic groups. This process of devolving responsibility back to the local community is essential to maintaining the legitimacy of intervention itself. Intervening to protect human beings must not be tainted by any suspicion that is a form of neo-colonial imperialism. On the contrary, the responsibility to rebuild, which derives from the obligation to react, must be directed towards returning the society in question to those who live in it, and who, in the last instance, must take responsibility together for its future destiny.

Documento(s) 7 de 12