India calls for 'genuine political will' to deal peace efforts

Calling for "genuine political will" to deal with the challenge of peacebuilding efforts, India has sought greater coherence and coordination within the UN bodies including the Security Council to meet the changing nature of conflicts.
"The impact of the peacebuilding efforts has continued to be limited. This is primarily because of the very inadequate funding and the less than optimum coordination with other UN organs, including the Security Council," India's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Tanmaya Lal said.
These challenges can only be overcome if there is "genuine political will among those who can contribute in this regard", he said at a UN General Assembly session on Peace Building Commission yesterday.

Lal said the changing nature of conflict is impacting the complex requirement of peacebuilding to avoid relapse into conflict and to build sustaining peace.
"While it is increasingly clear that instability in one part of the world impacts security and economic prospects even in distant parts of the world, there continues to be still limited focus on peacebuilding. This needs to be remedied," he said, adding that in a globalised world, destinies of people are inter-linked.
"Conflicts present common challenges. Their solutions also require collective response," Lal said.

While India recognised the relevance of greater coherence and coordination within the UN system and beyond, "this requires careful examination in view of the different responsibilities, tasks and priorities".

For peacebuilding efforts to be sustainable, it is imperative that they are "aligned" with the national priorities. The record of the effectiveness of the Peace Building Commission during its existence for the past 10 years has "at best been mixed", Lal said.
He also lamented that the funds available for peacebuilding continue to be a fraction of what is available for peacekeeping activities and are even declining.
"Only more predictable and sustainable financing will help Peace Building Commission be more effective," he said, while stressing that the role of women and youth in peacebuilding, including in decision-making, is important.
"Skill development and employment generation are crucial for maintaining peace and preventing relapse into conflict," he said.

The Brazilian envoy stressed that people expected from
"bold leadership" and a "commitment to change" from the world body in the wake of the unprecedented crises and threats to security being faced across the world.
"Most of have already understood that holding on to status quo cannot be an option," he said adding that not having text-based negotiations is not a "sustainable state of affairs" and the reform must be completed within a fixed time frame.
The Assembly also decided that its upcoming discussions would build on the positions and proposals made by Member States and reflected in the decision and its annex - circulated on 31 July 2015 - and use the elements of convergence circulated on 12 July 2016 to help inform its future work.

India had been strongly pushing for completing the long-pending reforms of the Security Council by the end of the 70th anniversary of the UN this September.
India's former Ambassador to the UN Asoke Mukerji had last year noted that India was among the first to seek to conclude the UNSC reform process by the 70th anniversary of the United Nations.
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In May, the G4 nations had decried the "out of date" structure of the UN Security Council, saying the problem of "imbalance of influence" in the Council cannot be corrected if only non-permanent members are added to the powerful UN body as part of its reform and expansion in both categories is essential to achieve equilibrium that reflects current global realities.

India's Permanent Representative to the UNAmbassador Syed Akbaruddin had saidit is evident from the positions submitted in the text circulated by former UNGA President in July 2015 that an overwhelming majority of member states support expansion in both categories.
In all, 129 member states out of a total 152 or about around 85 per cent support expansion in both categories.
"We do believe that the problem lies in the imbalance of influence within the Security Council between the permanent and non-permanent members. Expanding only in the non-permanentcategory is not going to solve the problem.
"It will actually widen the difference between permanent and non-permanent members even more, tilting further the scales in favour of a dispensation that was valid in the special situation in 1945 but is no longer now," he had said.