The 38th floor: Security Council considers 'An Agenda for Peace' proposals.

• Position: Includes related information on General Assembly action and excerpts from statements by Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali

A series of special Security Council meetings have been launched to review specific proposals put forward in the Secretary-General's "An Agenda for Peace", with the aim of strengthening and making more effective the capacity of the UN for preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peace-keeping.

The Council met to discuss peace-keeping on 29 October, fact-finding on 30 November, and special economic problems faced by States as a result of sanctions imposed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter on 30 December.

The Agenda report (A/47/277-S/24111), a multifaceted plan issued on 23 June 1992, was prepared by Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in response to a request from the historic summit session of the Security Council on 31 january 1992. The Agenda features many novel ideas aimed at honing the UN's ability to identify conflicts, bring about their short- and long-term solutions, and foster peace among former adversaries.

The examination of the Agenda was coordinated with discussions in the General Assembly. Council members decided it would meet at least once a month to discuss the Agenda proposals which concern it or were addressed to it in order to arrive at conclusions to be considered at a special Council meeting, possibly in the spring of 1993.

In a statement (S/24728) issued on 29 October after the discussion on peace-keeping, the Council encouraged Member States to inform the Secretary-General of their willingness to provide forces or capabilities to the UN for peace-keeping operations and the type of units or capabilities that might be available at short notice, "subject to overriding national defence requirements and the approval of the Governments providing them".

It favoured an enhanced peacekeeping planning staff within the UN Secretariat, as well as an operations centre to deal with the growing complexity of initial planning and control of peace-keeping operations in the field, using "appropriately experienced" military or civilian staff to be supplied by Member States.

In a 30 November statement (S/24872), the Council supported the wider use of fact-finding as a tool of preventive diplomacy, in some instances through dispatching missions to requesting States. All Member States in a position to do so should provide the Secretary-General with detailed information "on issues of concern, so as to facilitate effective preventive diplomacy", the Council stated. Ways to strengthen the Secretariat's capacity for information gathering...