7 countries elected to UN Peacebuilding Commission’s organizational body

In a step forward for the nascent United Nations Peacebuilding Commission – a body created in response to a call by the 2005 World Summit – seven countries were today elected by the Economic and Social Council to serve on its organizational committee.

Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Poland, Brazil and Belgium will hold seats on the standing body responsible for developing the Commission’s own rules of procedure and working methods.

The Commission was set up to bolster the UN’s ability conflict resolution function, with a strong post-conflict feature to help prevent countries or regions from relapsing into war.

The Peacebuilding Commission’s membership will include seven members of the Security Council, including its five permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States); seven States from the Economic and Social Council, elected from regional groups; five top contributors to the UN budget; and five top providers of military personnel and civilian police to UN missions. The General Assembly will elect seven additional members, with special consideration for States that have experienced post-conflict recovery.

The notion of a Peacebuilding Commission was first proposed in 2004 by the Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Threats Challenges and Change. In his 2005 report In Larger Freedom, the Secretary-General envisioned the Commission as an intergovernmental advisory body, which could marshal resources at the disposal of the international community to advise and propose strategies for post-conflict recovery, focusing attention on reconstruction, institution-building and sustainable development, in countries emerging from conflict.