Brazil and peacebuilding

Promoting development is essential for the effective establishment of peace and safety. That is why Brazil supports peacebuilding measures in countries recently emerging from armed conflict or at the risk of conflict.

These measures, which are intended to strengthen local institutions and re-establish local government basic functions, are essential to overcome problems that are at the root of many conflicts, including poverty, lack of basic services, discrimination and difficulty in accessing justice.

These initiatives help to avoid the outbreak or reappearance of instability, thus creating conditions favorable to a lasting peace. It is fundamental that such peacebuilding measures are implemented with the consent of beneficiary countries.

The Brazilian government actively took part in the creation of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) in 2005. In addition to the PBC, the UN Peacebuilding Architecture is comprised of the Peacebuilding Support Office and the Peacebuilding Fund.

Inspired by principles that Brazil has promoted since the late 1990s, the PBC helps countries recently emerging from armed conflict to consolidate security as well as reach political stability and sustainable development with social inclusion. Today, the PBC agenda is comprised of the following country-specific configurations: Burundi, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Central African Republic and Sierra Leone.

Brazil held PBC presidency in the 2014-2015 term. On the occasion, it promoted greater participation of developing countries, African regional and sub-regional organizations and civil society in the Commission’s activities and maintained a constructive engagement with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The Brazilian presidency also encouraged reflection on the interdependence between security and development and on the importance of national ownership and capacity-building of local staff for the success of policies aimed to help those countries on the Commission's agenda.

Brazil has chaired the PBC Guinea-Bissau Configuration since its inception, in 2007, and has promoted an integrated approach to international community actions in support of that country so that they include not only political and security aspects, but also social and economic ones.

Within the context of the ten years of the creation of PBC, the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, appointed an Advisory Group of Experts on the Review of the United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture for a thorough review of the theme. Based on the Group’s report, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 70/262 and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2282/2016, both of which introduced the new concept of “sustaining peace”, were adopted in April 2016.

Recognized as a set of activities that prevent the outbreak, escalation, continuation and recurrence of conflicts so as to guide a holistic approach to peace, sustaining peace comprises, among other measures, the promotion of sustainable development, poverty eradication, national reconciliation and inclusive dialogue, access to justice, promotion of gender equality and coordinated mobilization of the several bodies and entities of the UN System. Another positive outcome was the acknowledgement of the need for predictable and sustained financing of UN peacebuilding activities.

The current United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has given momentum to the reform of the peacebuilding architecture and proposes that emphasis be given to prevention, with measures to avoid the outbreak of crisis and readdress the importance of the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter. For Guterres, prevention must be applied across the three pillars of the United Nations (peace and security, human rights and development) by adopting the following measures: a) strengthening preventive diplomacy (reinforcing UN’s mediation capacity); b) regarding the 2030 Agenda and the “sustaining peace” as essential to long-term prevention; c) reinforcing partnerships with governments, regional organizations, international financial institutions, civil society, the academia and the private sector, and d) implementing reforms to avoid the fragmentation of the UN work (by grouping the three pillars in a horizontal fashion and integrating each one of them vertically – from prevention to conflict resolution, from peacebuilding to sustainable development)

Brazil is a member of the Group of Friends of Sustaining Peace at the United Nations General Assembly, which offers opportunities for discussing issues concerning lasting peace.

Brazil believes that actions to consolidate and sustain peace must be guided by the following principles: a) national ownership, with activities in line with national priorities and strategies; b) strengthening of national capacities; c) strengthening of the role of women; d) overcoming the sequential view between conflict prevention and peacekeeping and peacebuilding, so as to integrate  sustaining peace initiatives into peacekeeping operations mandates from the outset.

Brazil promotes the strengthening of PBC ties with other UN bodies – particularly with the Security Council – with the aim to stress an holistic perspective in the treatment of the root causes of conflicts and the challenges facing countries recently emerging from those scenarios.

With a view to promoting coordination among peacekeeping and peacebuilding activities, Brazil has sought to increase the participation of civil experts in UN missions, in areas including public safety, border control, fight against drug trafficking, electoral systems, correctional systems and public administration. Brazil also endorses the central role of women in these initiatives, especially concerning reconciliation, conflict prevention and economic revitalization.