ConflictBarometer_2015

MEASURES OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION
The non-violent crisis over maritime possessions and the
Guyana Esequiba territory between Venezuela and Guyana
resurfaced. Guyana's position was supported by the
Caribbean Community Secretariat (CARICOM) and the Commonwealth.
Venezuela made clear its preference for mediation
by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean
States (CELAC) [→ Venezuela Guyana].
ASIA AND OCEANIA
The UN's sole peacekeeping mission in Asia was conducted
under the auspices of UNMOGIP serving the purpose to monitor
compliance of the ceasefire between India and Pakistan
in the border region of Kashmir. Throughout the year, the UN
counted numerous violent incidents on both sides. Whereas
Pakistan had previously declared Kashmir and Jammu to
be internationally-recognized disputed territories, India rejected
this notion and claimed authority of Kashmir as an
''integral part of its own territory [→ Pakistan India].
On political level, the situation within Myanmar, the Maldives,
Uzbekistan, and DPRK prompted several UN statements and
adoptions of resolutions. As for Myanmar, the UN issued a
statement in which they called attention to the aggravating
intercommunal violence between Rohingya Muslims and
Buddhists in Rakhine State when the numbers of displaced
boat refugees in the Andaman Sea peaked again in 2015.
In response, the government of Myanmar rejected recommendations
of the OHCHR Universal Periodic Review which
called for the better implementation of rights of religious
groups [→ Myanmar (Buddhists Rohingyas / Rakhine State)].
With regards to the human rights situation in the DPRK, the
UN opened a new regional office in Seoul with the objective
to better monitor incidents of human rights abuses in North
Korea [→ North Korea USA, South Korea, Japan]. On June
12, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Uzbekistan.
During a meeting with PM Karimov, he brought the attention
to the situation of forced labor and urged Karimov to improve
the treatment of prisoners. Apart from UN activities,
other international organization such as the OSCE conducted
five missions in Asia, namely in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, which ended as of
December 31, 2015.
Regional cooperation was observed through the activities of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN
was founded in 1967 in order to promote economic and
political cooperation in the region by simultaneously guaranteeing
full national sovereignty of its members. As a
consequence thereof, ASEAN developed fewer binding instruments
and mechanisms than other regional organizations
such as OAS or the EU. In March, the 9th ASEAN Defense
Ministers' Meeting was held in Malaysia. Following this, the
ten defense ministers signed a joint declaration with the
objective to strengthen regional security cooperation against
terrorist activities. In April, the 26th ASEAN Summit took
place. Among topics discussed, commitment was emphasized
to a region free of weapons of mass destruction. On
August 4, the 48th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting was held
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ASEAN members issued a joint
statement in which they reaffirmed ASEAN's commitment to
preserving Southeast Asia as a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone.
Furthermore, ASEAN issued a statement on April 29, following
Chinese seizure of Mischief Reef/Meiji in the Spratly Islands,
in which they condemned the activities [→ China Vietnam
et al. (South China Sea)].
MIDDLE EAST AND MAGHREB
The UN carried out several peacekeeping and political missions
in the Middle East and Maghreb. The UNIFIL mission
in Lebanon started in 1978, first mandated to control the
retreat of Israeli soldiers from southern Lebanon and to restore
government control of the area. Following the Lebanon
war in 2006, the mandate was renewed with the addition
of control of illegal arms trade [→ Israel - Lebanon]. In
2015, one Spanish UNIFIL member was killed after Israel had
responded with airstrikes and artillery to Hezbollah attacks
[→ Israel (Hezbollah)]. Also based in the Levant was the UN
observer mission UNDOF controlling the demilitarized Zone
between Syria and the Israeli occupied Golan Heights. While
the mission was established in 1974 in order to observe
the ceasefire between both countries, the UNDOF-controlled
area saw frequent cross-border shelling in the context of the
Syrian civil war [→ Syria Israel]. The first ever peacekeeping
operation established by the UN was UNTSO in the Middle
East in 1948. The Jerusalem based mission was mandated to
observe the truce in Palestine territories, ceasefire between
Israel and its Arab neighbours, and to assist UNIFIL in Lebanon
[→ Israel (PNA / Palestine territories)]. In Western Sahara,
the peacekeeping mission MINURSO was implemented in
1991 to observe the ceasefire agreement and to take steps
to a referendum aimed at the clarification of the status of
Western Sahara as a part of Morocco or as an independent
state [→ Morocco (POLISARIO / Western Sahara)]. UN Envoy
to the Western Sahara Christopher Ross stated in March this
year that the establishment of a state led by POLISARIO had
become impossible due to a lack of consensus within the
group.
The two political missions of the UN in Iraq and Afghanistan
were extended to 2016. Since 2002, UNAMA supported the
transition process in Afghanistan, coordinating the work of
UN departments and NGOs [→ Afghanistan (Taliban et al.)].
Established in 2003 having a similar mandate as UNAMA,
UNAMI continued its operations in Iraq. The political mission
UNSMIL in Libya was established in 2011 to provide
assistance to the authorities in rebuilding statehood, tackling
illegal arms trade, and securing borders. In 2015, representatives
of Libya's two rival parliaments frequently participated
in UN-led peace talks in order to form a national unity government.
In October, UNSMIL presented the agreement's
final draft and announced Faiz al-Saraj prime minister of the
unity government. Neither of the parliaments voted on the
agreement [→ Libya (opposition)].
Throughout the year, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
issued several statements concerning conflicts in the Middle
East and Maghreb. For example, on March 3, he criticized the
Iranian government for repeated human rights violations in
a report to the UNHRC. In response, Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif rejected those claims referring to
double standards and politicization of those issues [→ Iran
(opposition)]. Ban Ki-moon was also calling for an end to
the violence as well as for meaningful negotiations between
Israel and Palestine Authorities [→ Israel (PNA / Palestinian
Territories)]. For this purpose, he met separately with Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem on October 20. Violence
did not subside until the end of the year.
The removal of Syria's chemical weapons, led by the 2013
implemented joint OPCW-UN mission, continued. According
to OPCW-UN, a total of 98 percent of the production sites had
been destroyed by October 2015 [→ Syria USA]. A major
breakthrough was reached between Iran and the P5+1/E3+3
group concerning the Iranian nuclear program [→ Iran USA,
EU et al. (nuclear program)].
EUPOL COPPS, the EU Police Mission for the Palestinian Ter-
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