Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). The DPKO, under
the direction of the under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, is the operational
arm for all UN peacekeeping efforts. In that capacity, the DPKO is responsible for the
planning, preparation, direction, conduct, monitoring, and management of such operations.
Included among its many duties is conducting analyses of emergency policy
questions and conducting contingency planning for potential operations. Among the
many types of missions it is responsible for planning, implementing, and overseeing are
peacekeeping, peace enforcement, peacemaking, and peace-building.
United Nations–European Union, Negotiation Process in Bosnia. When Bosnia-
Herzegovina declared its independence from Yugoslavia on April 6, 1992, the immediate
preference of the international community was one of noninvolvement and a cessation of
all arms sales to the warring parties. It was generally anticipated, however, that the
European Union (EU) would use its regional influence to act as a broker between
Yugoslavia and Bosnia at least to stop the fighting and get them to the negotiating table.
This was not to be. It quickly became apparent that there was little in the way of a unified
European position on Bosnia, and that, as a consequence, greater effort would be
required by international organizations more broadly defined. As a result, various diplomatic
missions were established to negotiate with the parties—particularly with Bosnian
Serbs and the government of Yugoslavia—in an effort to establish a basis for peace. Cyrus
Vance (1917–2002), the former U.S. Secretary of State in the Carter administration, and
Lord David Owen (b. 1938), a former leader of the British Labour Party, were selected as
joint chairmen of a joint UN (Vance) and EU (Owen) negotiating process that was
intended to convince the warring parties to try to reach a settlement. While Vance and
Owen visited all parts of Bosnia and Yugoslavia, talking to leaders, hearing various positions,
and taking proposals back and forth, little of real value was achieved. A peace plan
of sorts was hammered out in January 1993, but it was rejected by both the United States
and the Bosnian Serbs. Still, the “peace process” ground on, with Vance and Owen struggling
to find ways to break the deadlock. After Vance’s departure from the scene and his
replacement by Norway’s Thorvald Stoltenberg (b. 1931), little changed, though in
March 1994, another proposal was put forth, but it too was defeated. It took a great length
of time before commentators and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic drew the conclusion
that the UN-EU negotiating process served only to give Yugoslav dictator Slobodan
Milosevic (1941–2006) time to procrastinate while expanding his holdings in
Bosnia. More specifically, it took until the summer of 1995, with Serb attacks on UN safe
havens, for the UN-EU to threaten the physical action needed to stop Serb aggression. A
“peace process” arrived at through negotiations proved to be a failure on this occasion in
light of Serbia’s unwillingness to listen to the language of diplomacy.
United Nations General Assembly. The General Assembly is the primary representative
body of the United Nations in that it is composed of all member states and is the
main arena for political debate. Each member state of the General Assembly is entitled to
one vote in the deliberation of assembly matters, and all decisions are to be decided by a
two-thirds majority.
Under the UN Charter, a primary role of the General Assembly is to deliberate upon
the broad principles of international peace and security, including principles governing
disarmament. The assembly is authorized to discuss any questions relating to the maintenance
of international peace and security and to make recommendations with regard to
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