By Dr Bertrand Ramcharan
Chief Speech-Writer to the UN Secretary-General (1988-1992);
Seventh Chancellor of the University of Guyana
In January 1992, the UN Security Council convened at the level of Heads of State and requested the then UN Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali to submit to it an agenda for peace highlighting the prevention of conflicts. Later that year, Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali submitted his historic Agenda for Peace, focussing on preventive diplomacy for peace, peace-making, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and peace enforcement.
I wrote the first draft of this document but I have never been in favour of the inclusion of peace enforcement. I have always believed that the UN should only rarely be in the business of fighting wars. The 1992 Agenda for Peace was a crisp, action-oriented document, and it has served the UN until now – and continues to do so. It led to significant enhancement of UN preventive diplomacy and to the establishment of UN centres for preventive diplomacy in North-West Africa, Central Africa, and Central Asia.