The UN Peace Building Commission – a success or failure?

Abstract

Resolving conflicts and achieving durable peace is one of the main goals of the United Nations (UN). For many years the UN has been engaged in peace building efforts. Until the creation of the Peace Building Commission in 2006, however, no part of the UN system had been directly responsible for assistance to States in the post-conflict reality or in the efforts aimed at achieving durable peace. The Peace Building Commission managed to fill in this vacuum through systematic and institutional links between peace keeping, post-conflict operations and international network of assistance as well as activities undertaken by donors, including the World Bank. The aim of this article is to present the functioning of the UN Peace Building Commission: its rules of procedure, composition and the tasks is has been given. First, the normative aspect will be delineated, followed by brief characteristics of concrete cases in which the Commission has been engaged. Based on that analysis, the question whether the work of the Commission has been a success of a failure will be examined and an attempt will be made to determine factors that condition effective work of the Peace Building Commission.