..Press Release................................ UNESCAP News Services

Date 20 September 2006
Press Release No. L/54/2006

THE UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL
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MESSAGE ON THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
New York, 21 September 2006

My dear friends,

For some of us, peace is a day-to-day reality. Our streets are safe; our children go to school. Where the fabric of society is strong, the precious gifts of peace can almost go unremarked.

But for far too many people in the world today, those gifts are only an elusive dream. They live in chains: a climate of insecurity and fear. It is mainly for them that this day exists.

Twenty-five years ago, the General Assembly proclaimed the International Day of Peace as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence. The United Nations has observed it ever since. It is meant to get people not just thinking of peace, but doing something about it.

Yet, on this day as on the other 364, violence continues to claim innocent lives. And these last few weeks have seen tragic new escalations of conflict in several parts of the world.

The United Nations works for peace in many ways. We are doing our utmost to prevent further bloodshed. And we have had some successes.

States are paying more attention to preventive diplomacy. UN peacekeeping missions -- and our efforts to support democracy and promote human rights -- are making a difference. And individual citizens everywhere, men and women in every society, are working to relieve suffering, and to build bridges between people of different faiths or cultures.

In fact, there are fewer wars today than in previous decades. But still far too many.
Every casualty of conflict is a failure, which reminds us how much more there is to do.

In that spirit, I call on people everywhere to observe one minute of silence today, in the name of peace. Let us remember the victims of war. And let each of us pledge to do more, wherever we can make a difference, to bring about lasting peace.

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Backgrounder for the International Day of Peace

Costs of war and peace

Military vs. peace expenditures

· World military expenditure in 2005 reached an estimated $1.1 trillion per year. This corresponds to 2.5 percent of the world Gross Domestic Product, or an average $173 per capita. (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute 2006).

· The United Nations contributions for economic, social and humanitarian programmes to help the world’s poorest countries – through UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the UN Development Programme and others – amount to $10.5 billion a year. UN peacekeeping currently costs some $ 5 billion annually.

UN peacekeeping

· With 16 peacekeeping operations world-wide and more than 90,000 personnel in service, the UN spends approximately $5 billion per year on peacekeeping. This represented less than 0.5% of global military spending.

· The United Nations Security Council in August affirmed the international community’s confidence in UN peacekeeping by adopting three resolutions that could increase UN peacekeeping levels around the world by 50 percent, raising costs to $8 billion a year and the number of peacekeepers to well over 100,000. The Security Council voted to expand the UN force in Lebanon by 15,000 troops, create a new and larger mission, largely of police, in Timor-Leste and expand the UN Mission in Sudan by 17,300 troops and 5,300 police to bring stability to Darfur.

· Top 10 providers of assessed contributions to UN peacekeeping budget are (as of 1 January 2006): the United States (27%), Japan (19%), Germany (9%), the United Kingdom (7%), France (7%), Italy (5%), Canada (3%), Spain (3%), China (2%) and the Netherlands (2%).

· As of 30 June 2006, outstanding contributions to UN peacekeeping budget amounted to some $1.34 billion. Top 10 debtors were: the United States, Japan, Ukraine, China, Republic of Korea, Argentina, Belarus, France, the United Arab Emirates and Italy.

· Since 1948, more than 130 nations have contributed some 1 million military and police personnel to peace operations.

· As of 31 August 2006, 108 countries were contributing a total of some 75,000 uniformed personnel (military and police). There were also about 4,500 international civilian personnel, 1,800 UN Volunteers and more than 8,600 local civilian staff.

· Top 10 troop-contributors to UN peacekeeping operations are currently: Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Jordan, Nepal, Ghana, Uruguay Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa, providing together more than 65 percent of all UN military and police personnel. Less than 5.7 per cent came from the 25-member European Union and 0.5 per cent from the United States.

Effectiveness of UN peace operations

· Since 1945, UN peacekeepers have undertaken more than 60 field missions and participated in implementing some 170 peace settlements that have ended regional conflicts, and enabled people in more than 45 countries to participate in free and fair elections.

· UN peace operations are less expensive than other forms of international interventions. When UN costs per peacekeeper are compared to the costs of troops deployed by the US, developed states, NATO or regional organizations such as the AU, the UN is the least expensive option by far, according to a study by Washington D.C.’s Henry Stimson Center.

· A 2005 study by the US’ RAND Corporation compared different approaches to “nation-building”. The UN, it concluded, was the most suitable institutional framework for most nation-building missions, one with a comparatively low cost structure, a comparatively high success rate, and the greatest degree of international legitimacy.

· A 2005 survey by Oxford University economists found that international military intervention authorized by the UN is the most cost-effective means of reducing the risk of conflict in post-conflict societies.

· A 2005 study by the US Government Accountability Office estimated that it would cost the US about twice as much as the UN to conduct a peacekeeping operation similar to the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti — a projected $876 million compared to the UN budgeted $428 million for the first 14 months of the mission. Other comparative advantages of UN peacekeeping cited by this study included its multinational nature which provides impartiality and legitimacy; burden sharing, the development of staff members with experience in post conflict peacebuilding operations and a structure for coordinating international assistance.

The greater UN system’s work for peace

· The UN global role in the last five decades has been recognized by eight Nobel Peace Prizes. The UN and Secretary-General Kofi Annan were awarded the Centennial Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. The Prize went to the UN peacekeeping forces in 1988; to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in 1981; to the UN labour agency (the International Labor Organization or ILO) in 1969; to UNICEF in 1965; to Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in1961; to UNHCR in 1954; and to the UN acting mediator in Palestine, J. Ralph Bunche, in 1950.

· In addition to peacekeepers, there are almost 40,000 staff members working for the UN Secretariat and related entities all over the world, and some 23,300 more working for United Nations agencies, funds and programmes such as UNICEF and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. By comparison, the city of Stockhom has some 44,000 employees and New York City, 300,000.

· Seventy per cent of the work of the UN system is devoted to helping countries build the capacity to help themselves. This includes countering disease, drugs, crime and terrorism; promoting democracy and human rights; saving children from starvation and disease; providing relief assistance to refugees and disaster victims; and assisting countries devastated by war and the long-term threat of land mines.

· Although the US is the largest financial contributor to the United Nations ($3.8 billion to be paid for 2006-7), smaller countries tend to contribute more per citizen to the UN budget. For instance, Luxembourg pays $2.44 per capita and Liechtenstein $2.09, while Germany contributes $1.51, France $1.44 and the United States $1.23.

United Nations Department of Public Information, Peace and Security Section, 19 September 2006

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