United Nations Security Council Resolution 1327

by the United Nations

Adopted by the Security Council at its 4220th meeting, on 13 November 2000

The Security Council,

Recalling its resolution 1318 (2000) of 7 September 2000, adopted at its meeting at the level of Heads of State and Government in the course of the Millennium Summit,

Reaffirming its determination to strengthen United Nations peacekeeping operations,

Stressing that peacekeeping operations should strictly observe the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,

Having welcomed the report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (S/2000/809) and welcoming the report of the Secretary-General on its implementation (S/2000/1081),

Having considered the recommendations in the report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations which fall within its area of responsibility,

1. Agrees to adopt the decisions and recommendations contained in the annex to the resolution;

2. Decides to review periodically the implementation of the provisions contained in the annex;

3. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.

Annex

The Security Council,

I

Resolves to give peacekeeping operations clear, credible and achievable mandates;

Recognizes the critical importance of peacekeeping operations having, where appropriate and within their mandates, a credible deterrent capability;

Urges the parties to prospective peace agreements, including regional and subregional organizations and arrangements, to coordinate and cooperate fully with the United Nations from an early stage in negotiations, bearing in mind the need for any provisions for a peacekeeping operation to meet minimum conditions, including the need for a clear political objective, the practicability of the designated tasks and timelines, and compliance with the rules and principles of international law, in particular international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law;

Requests the Secretary-General, in this regard, to make necessary arrangements for the appropriate involvement of the United Nations in peace negotiations that are likely to provide for the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers;

Further requests the Secretary-General to keep it regularly and fully informed of the progress in such negotiations with his analysis, assessment and recommendations, and to report to the Council on the conclusion of any such peace agreement, on whether it meets the minimum conditions for United Nations peacekeeping operations;

Requests the Secretariat to continue to provide comprehensive political briefings on relevant issues before the Council;

Requests regular military briefings from the Secretariat, including by the Military Adviser, the Force Commander or the Force Commander-designate, both prior to the establishment of a peacekeeping operation and in the implementation phase, and requests that these briefings report on key military factors such as, where appropriate, the chain of command, force structure, unity and cohesion of the force, training and equipment, risk assessment and rules of engagement;

Requests regular civilian police briefings from the Secretariat in a similar vein, both prior to the establishment and in the implementation phase of peacekeeping operations with significant civilian police components;

Requests the Secretariat to provide the Council with regular, comprehensive humanitarian briefings for countries where there are United Nations peacekeeping operations;

Encourages the Secretary-General, during the planning and preparation of a peacekeeping operation, to take all possible measures at his disposal to facilitate rapid deployment, and agrees to assist the Secretary-General, wherever appropriate, with specific planning mandates requesting him to take the necessary administrative steps to prepare the rapid deployment of a mission;

Undertakes, when establishing or enlarging a peacekeeping operation, to request formally that the Secretary-General proceed to the implementation phase of the mandate upon receipt of firm commitments to provide sufficient numbers of adequately trained and equipped troops and other critical mission support elements;

Encourages the Secretary-General to begin his consultations with potential troop contributors well in advance of the establishment of peacekeeping operations, and requests him to report on his consultations during the consideration of new mandates;

Recognizes that the problem of the commitment gap with regard to personnel and equipment for peacekeeping operations requires the assumption by all Member States of the shared responsibility to support United Nations peacekeeping;

Emphasizes the importance of Member States taking the necessary and appropriate steps to ensure the capability of their peacekeepers to fulfil the mandates assigned to them, underlines the importance of international cooperation in this regard, including the training of peacekeepers, and invites Member States to incorporate HIV/AIDS awareness training into their national programmes in preparation for deployment;

Underlines the importance of an improved system of consultations among the troop-contributing countries, the Secretary-General and the Security Council, in order to foster a common understanding of the situation on the ground, of the mission’s mandate and of its implementation;

Agrees, in this regard, to strengthen significantly the existing system of consultations through the holding of private meetings with troop-contributing countries, including at their request, and without prejudice to the provisional rules of procedure of the Security Council, in particular when the Secretary-General has identified potential troop-contributing countries for a new or ongoing peacekeeping operation, during the implementation phase of an operation, when considering a change in, or renewal or completion of a peacekeeping mandate, or when a rapid deterioration in the situation on the ground threatens the safety and security of United Nations peacekeepers;

II

Undertakes to ensure that the mandated tasks of peacekeeping operations are appropriate to the situation on the ground, including such factors as the prospects for success, the potential need to protect civilians and the possibility that some parties may seek to undermine peace through violence;

Emphasizes that the rules of engagement for United Nations peacekeeping forces should be fully consistent with the legal basis of the operation and any relevant Security Council resolutions and clearly set out the circumstances in which force may be used to protect all mission components and personnel, military or civilian, and that the rules of engagement should support the accomplishment of the mission’s mandate;

Requests the Secretary-General, following full consultations with the United Nations membership, in particular troop-contributing countries, to prepare a comprehensive operational doctrine for the military component of United Nations peacekeeping operations and submit it to the Security Council and the General Assembly;

III

Stresses the need to improve the information gathering and analysis capacity of the Secretariat, with a view to improving the quality of advice to both the Secretary- General and the Security Council, and welcomes, in this regard, the clarifications provided by the Secretary-General in his implementation report on his plans for the establishment of the Executive Committee on Peace and Security Information and Strategic Analysis Secretariat (S/2000/1081);

IV

Stresses the importance of the United Nations being able to respond and deploy a peacekeeping operation rapidly upon the adoption by the Security Council of a resolution establishing its mandate, and notes that rapid deployment is a comprehensive concept that will require improvements in a number of areas;

Calls on all relevant parties to work towards the objective of meeting the timelines for United Nations peacekeeping operations of deployment of a traditional peacekeeping operation within 30 days and of a complex operation within 90 days of the adoption of a Security Council resolution establishing its mandate;

Welcomes the Secretary-General’s intention to use these timelines as the basis for evaluating the capacity of existing systems to provide field missions with the human, material, financial and information assets that they require;

Welcomes the proposal of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations to create integrated mission task forces, and urges the Secretary-General to pursue this or any other related capabilities that would improve United Nations planning and support capacities;

Emphasizes the need for the Secretariat to provide the leadership of a peacekeeping operation with strategic guidance and plans for anticipating and overcoming any challenges to the implementation of a mandate, and stresses that such guidance should be formulated in cooperation with the mission leadership;

Welcomes the proposals of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations on improving the capacity of the United Nations to deploy military, civilian police and other personnel rapidly, including through the United Nations standby arrangements system, and urges the Secretary-General to consult current and potential troopcontributing countries on how best to achieve this important objective;

Undertakes to consider the possibility of using the Military Staff Committee as one of the means of enhancing the United Nations peacekeeping capacity.

V

Emphasizes that the biggest deterrent to violent conflict is addressing the root causes of conflict, including through the promotion of sustainable development and a democratic society based on a strong rule of law and civic institutions, including adherence to all human rights — civil, political, economic, social and cultural;

Concurs with the Secretary-General that every step taken towards reducing poverty and achieving broad-based economic growth is a step towards conflict prevention;

Stresses the important role of the Secretary-General in the prevention of armed conflicts, and looks forward to his report on this issue, which is to be submitted to Member States by May 2001;

Expresses its continued willingness to consider the use of Council missions, with the consent of host countries, in order to determine whether any dispute, or situation which might lead to international tension or give rise to a dispute, is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, and to make recommendations for action by the Council where appropriate;

Recalls the statements of its President of 20 July 2000 (PRST/2000/25) and 30 November 1999 (PRST/1999/34) on the prevention of armed conflict and welcomes, in this context, the Secretary-General’s intention to send fact-finding missions to areas of tension more frequently;

Recalls resolution 1296 (2000) of 19 April 2000 on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, and looks forward to receiving the Secretary-General’s follow-up report in this context;

Reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in post-conflict peace-building, and fully endorses the urgent need to mainstream a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations;

Calls for the full implementation of its resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000;

VI

Welcomes the decision by the Secretary-General to instruct the Executive Committee on Peace and Security to formulate a plan on the strengthening of the United Nations capacity to develop peace-building strategies and to implement programmes in support of them, and requests the Secretary-General to submit recommendations to the Security Council and the General Assembly on the basis of this plan;

Recognizes that stronger measures to reduce poverty and promote economic growth are important for the success of peace-building;

Emphasizes, in this regard, the need for more effective coordination of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes, and reaffirms that adequate and timely funding for these programmes is critical to the success of peace processes;

Welcomes the Secretary-General’s intention to spell out more clearly, when presenting future concepts of operations, what the United Nations system can do to help strengthen local rule of law and human rights institutions, drawing on existing civilian police, human rights, gender and judicial expertise;

VII

Welcomes the Secretary-General’s intention to conduct a needs assessment of the areas in which it would be feasible and useful to draft a simple, common set of interim rules of criminal procedure.