SPECPOL: Re-engineering UN Peacekeeping

Committee: United Nations General Assembly Fourth Committee — Special, Political and Decolonisation (SPECPOL)
Agenda: Re-engineering UN Peacekeeping: Navigating Host-State Expulsions, Asymmetric Threats, and Mandate Security Transitions
Sponsors: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Fiji, Guinea, Sudan, Turkmenistan
Signatories: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia

What the resolution does

The resolution's central provision requires that all future peacekeeping mandates include a mandatory transition plan, negotiated jointly between the Department of Peace Operations and the host state before any drawdown or exit negotiations begin. That plan must set out benchmarks for transferring security responsibilities to national and local authorities.

It calls on the Security Council to institutionalise structured consultations with host states across the development, implementation and review of mandates, ensuring host-state participation during mission planning and regular strategic consultation for the mission's duration — while explicitly preserving the Council's power to act in the interest of international peace and security.

On what happens after a mission ends, the resolution recommends increased voluntary contributions to existing UN peacebuilding and post-conflict recovery funding mechanisms to support reconstruction and institutional capacity-building following withdrawal. It requests full implementation of Security Council Resolution 2594 (2021) on security transitions, including strengthening local security and healthcare institutions through capacity-building and resource mobilisation, and continued international monitoring for twelve months after a mission withdraws, coordinated by the Department of Peace Operations in consultation with the host state and relevant regional organisations.

On threats to peacekeepers themselves, it requests improved training focused on countering modern and guerrilla threats, and recommends strengthening and formalising information-sharing between the United Nations and regional organisations to improve early warning and coordinated response, citing Security Council Resolution 1631 (2005).

It invites the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its next session on implementation.

What the preamble records

The resolution's preambulatory clauses set out the committee's case. It records deep concern at the limited institutional voice afforded to host states in the design of peacekeeping frameworks and in Security Council deliberations on matters directly affecting their territory. It notes that mandates are frequently renewed or terminated without a standardised periodic review mechanism, undermining predictability for host states and troop-contributing countries alike. It expresses alarm at the absence of coherent post-conflict restructuring frameworks, leaving host states without adequate support to rebuild governance, security and civil institutions once missions conclude. And it records that peacekeepers face increasing asymmetrical threats including improvised explosive devices, drone attacks and disinformation campaigns.

It draws on the Brahimi Report, the HIPPO Report, the A4P initiative and its Declaration of Shared Commitments, and Security Council Resolutions 2378 (2017), 2436 (2018) and 2518 (2020).

In the room

Three blocs formed: Activee, New World and Shield. The delegate of Sudan challenged the New World Bloc's draft on the floor, saying it contained "a huge lacuna and a very big vacuum that will cause issues"; the provision was subsequently removed. The final resolution passed unanimously. Delegates of Sudan, the Central African Republic and Guinea drove proceedings. The session was heated throughout.

The committee did not reach its second agenda, on the weaponisation and commercialisation of Earth's orbit and transparency and confidence-building measures in outer space.