Council (UNSC) meeting
26 March 2007
Pretoria: South African Foreign Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma will
later today Monday, 26 March 2007 depart for New York, United States of
America, where she will address the United Nations Security Council on the
relationship between the United Nations Security Council and the African
Union's Peace and Security Council in conflict resolution on Wednesday, 28
March 2007.
Minister Dlamini Zuma will lead these discussions within the context of
South Africa's Presidency of the Security Council for the month of March 2007.
In this regard South Africa, in its capacity as President of the Security
Council, initiated the thematic debate on the relationship between the United
Nations Security Council (UNSC) and regional organisations, including the
African Union's Peace and Security Council, in the maintenance of international
peace and security.
The debate is aimed at facilitating an exchange of views, obtaining new
perspectives and identifying potential areas in which this partnership between
the UN and regional organisations could be further explored, particularly given
AU experiences in the field of conflict resolution, peacekeeping and post
conflict reconstruction.
The January 2007 Summit of the African Union in Addis Ababa recalled that
"the maintenance of international peace and security is the primary
responsibility of the United Nations Security Council and called upon the
United Nations to examine, within the context of Chapter VIII of the United
Nations Charter, the possibility of funding, through assessed contributions,
peacekeeping operations undertaken by African Union or under its authority and
with the consent of the United Nations."
Minister Dlamini Zuma herself has committed South Africa to working within
the UN Security Council to "create synergies between the work of the African
Union Peace and Security Council and the UN Security Council with a view to the
prevention of outbreaks of violence and conflict in the continent of
Africa."
Minister Dlamini Zuma is expected to return to South Africa on Friday, 30
March 2007.
For further information, please contact:
Ronnie Mamoepa
Cell: 082 990 4853
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
26 March 2007
Source SAPA
