Topic: Improving Political Conflict Resolution Mechanisms
Country: Brazil
Delegate Name: Victoria Spiegel
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Brazil position papers GLIMUN 2012 committees
More than sixty years ago, Brazil and other countries from around the world founded the United Nations to maintain peace and prevent armed conflict among the peoples of this world. The United Nation’s role in conflict resolution is vital to maintaining the peace of this world and protecting the security of its people, and Brazil supports the nonviolent approaches of the United Nations.
Brazil has a long tradition of contributing to peacekeeping operations. We are among the top twenty contributors to the United Nations peacekeeping operations, having participated in 33 operations and contributed over 27,000 troops. We have participated in peacekeeping efforts in the Middle East, the former Belgian Congo, Cyprus, Mozambique, Angola, and more recently East Timor and Haiti. However, Brazil recognizes that peacekeepers alone cannot resolve conflicts; their goal must simply be to create conditions providing for a just and durable peace. Brazil holds that in order to sustain this peace, security must be accompanied by development. We advocate and request that peacekeeping missions provide information on their local economic impact,and we ask for recommendations from these operations on how to positively impact these economies in the greatest way possible. Another vital aspect of promoting sustainable peace through the work of peacekeepers is strengthening the rule of law. Peacekeeping operations give rule of law assistance in whatever areas needed to ensure peace; for example, in supporting the management of natural resources or guaranteeing property and land rights. Peacekeeping missions must be provided with tools that allow them to adapt to specific situations, as well as quality material and human resources. Finally, peacekeeping missions must reflect and represent greater equality regarding women and representatives of developing countries, whose perspectives, concerns, and approaches will benefit conflict resolution.
Finally, Brazil calls for a reform of the Security Council in order to improve the United Nation’s conflict resolution mechanisms. We call for an enlarged Security Council, expanded in both the categories of permanent and non-permanent membership. This proposition is supported by our brothers and sisters in Germany, India, and Japan. With this reformed Security Council, conflict resolution would improve and a broader perspective would be achieve with regards to resolving conflict before violence, and ending violence once it has broken out- the ultimate goal of the United Nations.
