Tokyo Statement of Principles for Peace and Development

III. Conflict prevention in Africa

Within the immediate African context, conflict prevention efforts will he required more for the prevention of intra-state conflicts. These efforts will need to sort out questions such as the types of conflicts -- csocial, political or economic -- that should be the concern for preventive measures, the level of conflict at which preventive actions should be taken, and the costs -- financial, institutional and human -- of conflict prevention. Further, responsibilities for conflict prevention should be delineated at the individual African country, sub-regional, regional and international levels. Continued need for substantial financial assistance from the international community must be stressed as an indispensable element in conflict prevention.

National and international efforts at conflict prevention will he most effective as part of "preventive; development" and "preventive; diplomacy." The former embraces a series of development activities by both Africa and its international partners to address the above-mentioned economic causes of conflicts. Such activities should give hope to the people and focus on the development of agriculture, education (especially primary and civic education), vocational training, and more generally human resource development and capacity building. In the development field, a state's legitimacy is linked to its ability to meet the economic and social needs of its citizens. Effective governance requires effective management of national resources including public funds. It means governments following economic policies that ensure economic stability, encourage domestic savings and access to capital, promise food security, encourage the development of the private sector, and impart equity. An important aspect of development policies in Africa is the sensitive problem of access to land: land reforms and equitable administration of land titles should be an integral element of national preventive development policies.

The role of the international community in preventive development should be seen as providing financial assistance in favor of major political international programmes and agreements, including the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s (UN-NADAF), The Tokyo Declaration on African Development, the UN Programme of Action for the LDCs, and Commitment 7 of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development. Such assistance should not be limited to the state, but also be extended to other non-state development actors. It should encompass assistance in diversifying African economies, easing market access for African exports, and enhancing human resource development and institution building. A part of ODA should also be devoted to consolidation of peace and reconciliation. Consideration should be given to incorporating some conflict-preventing elements, which include ensuring at the country level a more geographically equitable use of aid in development assistance programmes. Integration of relief activities into longer term development programmes would help to prevent recurrence of violent conflicts. In the relief to development continuum process, there should also be opportunities to mobilize ethnic groups for constructive national economic and social integration.

Refugee flows are also a potential source of inter-state as well as intra-state tensions. Refugee assistance and refugee rights protection are thus an important aspect of conflict prevention as well as management and peace-building. Further, successful repatriation and integration of refugees is the basis of sustainable development in the longer term.

"Preventive; diplomacy" describes actions to prevent disputes arising between parties, to prevent disputes from escalating into conflicts, and to limit the spread of the latter when they occur. At the national level, such diplomacy should encompass the existence of an institutional framework that assures the rule of law at the national and international levels, wider participation and consultation in the decision-making and implementing processes, and an opportunity to all for open dialogue, for power-sharing, and for the pursuit of personal prosperity. All groups, be they ethnic, religious or regional, should be given a chance to discuss their grievances and have them addressed. It is essential to promote a culture of peace, tolerance and accommodation. Involving the traditional systems of governance where traditional rulers and elders mediate potential conflicts will also he an appropriate strategy in conflict prevention. The NGOs and generally civil society should also be mobilized to play a constructive role in the various stages of conflict prevention: information gathering and dissemination, participation, mediation and follow-up actions.

At the international level, comprising mutually supportive actions by the OAU, the United Nations, the regional and other bodies and governments, the range of measures that may be mobilized include; a) fact finding and observation; b) good offices; c) mediation; d) negotiation; e) international legal measures such as the International Court of Justice; f) paralegal instruments such as arbitration and conciliation; and g) preventive deployment. The strengthening of the capacity of the OAU Mechanism for the Prevention, Management, and Resolution of Conflict including, in particular, financial contributions to the OAU Peace Fund should be a high priority for conflict prevention efforts.

The role of a well-developed and sensitive early warning system is crucial in the exercise of preventive diplomacy. However, an early warning system can be effective only if it is supplemented by the existence of a mechanism which ensures that appropriate preventive actions are taken if so warranted. Such a mechanism could be provided, for example, by the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, or a determination by the UN Secretary-General of the UN, or a finding by the International Court of Justice. Rapid intervention could limit the extension of conflict and "tame;" the combatants. Such a comprehensive early warning and early preventive actions could provide the OAU, the United Nations, and other interested parties with reliable and accurate information and capabilities to allow meaningful assessment of, and sensitivity to, the situation as well as to plan and execute appropriate strategy for defusing political violence. The capacity of the United Nations and the OAU to gather and collect the necessary information, and to improve its communications and data storage and retrieval capabilities should be urgently addressed. In this regard, academic institutions can make a contribution to improving analysis of data. There could be collaboration between policy-oriented institutions and the UNU. Given the multiplicity of fora in which early-warning data is being gathered, there is a case for ensuring their consistency and comparability, and even creating a central data bank.

Effectiveness of the early warning system, however, is weakened by lack of political will to act upon the early warning information. Judicial, institutional and political mechanisms do not exist, and actors often do not know what proper responses are. Sometimes conflicts are predictable but unavoidable, and then the emphasis should shift to resolving those conflicts as soon as they occur. In this regards, domestic conflicts are more difficult to deal with than interstate conflicts. Consideration should be given to the feasibility of the Secretary-General of the UN holding periodic consultations with selected member countries under Article 99 of the UN Charter with the objective of informing the Security Council and seeking its views on potential conflict situations of concern to the international community.

Preventive diplomacy entails actions at various levels and in various fora simultaneously (especially by the OAU and the UN in the case of Africa), and efforts must be made to improve coordination and cooperation between the various actors, including sub-regional organizations such as ECOWAS, SADC, IGADD, etc. In this connection, it is important that the political departments of the UN Secretariat and the OAU possess the necessary capacity and resources to carry out the extremely onerous tasks assigned to them.