Peacekeeping
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At the initiative of France and the UK, the Council will begin what seems likely to be an extended process of overhauling some key elements of peacekeeping. France, as Council president for January, is organising an informal seminar on 22 January and a thematic debate in the Council on 23 January.
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In only twenty days, from 11 to 31 August 2006, the Security Council adopted three resolutions which seem likely to increase UN peacekeeping levels around the world by approximately 50 percent and perhaps increase the overall cost of peacekeeping from the expected 2006-07 level of US$4.7 billion to possibly US$8 billion per year. This new Council activity represents the fourth major surge in UN peacekeeping since the end of the Cold War, each bringing new complex challenges. The first was in the early 1990s, followed by a period of retrenchment until the second surge in 1999-2000 with the establishment of UNMEE (Ethiopia/Eritrea) and MONUC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and the two transitional administrations, UNMIK (Kosovo) and UNTAET (Timor-Leste). The third was in 2003-04 when five new large multidimensional operations commenced: UNMIL (Liberia), ONUB (Burundi), UNOCI (Côte d'Ivoire), MINUSTAH (Haiti) and UNMIS (southern Sudan).
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The Council has scheduled an open meeting on 22 February on alleged irregularities in procurement in UN peacekeeping, as described in a recent audit report by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).
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On 23 February the Council will hold an open meeting on the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeeping personnel. No formal outcome is expected.
