Engaging with armed groups - Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

Engaging with armed groupsSimilarly, questions of precedent and concerns about terrorismcarry widely differing weight in different political contexts.• United Nations : The UN Secretary-General and SecurityCouncil have different roles and responsibilities with regard topeacemaking. The UN Secretary-General engages in mediationand “good offices” whose legitimacy and impartiality arerooted in the UN Charter. These characteristics contribute tothe fact that UN mediation remains attractive to many armedgroups (others will question a Secretary-General’s ability toact independently of powerful states on the Security Council).State actors may shy away from the UN out of concernfor issues of sovereignty and/or the difficulties inherent ininvolving the UN in a confidential process. In a case such asNepal, however, discreet political work enabled UN officials toengage early with an insurgent group. In other circumstances,such as the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, they havebeen called upon to facilitate complex talks between statesand a variety of armed groups.• Regional organisations : Regional and sub-regional organisationshave the advantages of proximity to the conflict aswell as knowledge of, and sometimes leverage over, conflictparties. However, their engagements may be subject to pressurefrom their larger member states ; limited by issues of mandateand/or capacity ; or distorted by the sponsorship of somearmed groups by one, or more, oftheir members (sponsorship of anarmed group by a neighbouringstate is all too common and canrender that group a tool of theforeign policy of its patron, andthus a force for regional, as well aslocal, instability).States, and multilateralbodies composed of states,have a bias towardspower and sympathiestowards other states thatpre-date the existence ofterrorist lists.17