38th floor: Security Council concludes 'Agenda for Peace' meetings.

• Position: Includes excerpts from statements by UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali - United Nations developments

The Security Council has concluded a nine-month review of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's wide-ranging strategy "An Agenda for Peace", urging all States to make participation in and support for international peace-keeping a part of their foreign and national security policy.

In his "Agenda", Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali made specific proposals to strengthen and make more effective the UN capacity for preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peace-keeping.

In a statement (S/25859) following its meeting on 28 May, the Council declared that it had studied thoroughly Agenda recommendations (A/47/277-S/24111), meeting seven times since October 1992 to examine the report.

The Council also stressed the value of high-level meetings and said it would convene a further meeting on the subject of peace-keeping in the near future.

On 15 June, the Secretary-General reported (A/I471965-S/25944) on action he had taken to implement the "agenda". He emphasized the "overriding importance of the full and timely provision" by Member States of the needed resources. "If the Organization is to respond effectively to the hopes placed in it by the peoples of the world, the Member States have to be as innovative in devising new financial approaches as they are in devising new tasks for the Organization to perform", Mr. Boutros-Ghali observed.

Clear goals sought

In its review, the Council said UN peace-keeping operations should be conducted in accordance with operational principles consistent with UN Charter provisions, including: a clear political goal with a precise mandate, subject to periodic review and change in its character or duration only by the Council itself; consent of the Government and, where appropriate, the parties concerned, save in exceptional cases; support for a political process or the peaceful settlement of disputes; impartiality in implementing Council decisions; the Council's readiness to take measures against parties which do not observe its decisions; and the Council's right to authorize "all means necessary" for UN forces to carry out their mandate and the inherent right of UN forces to take measures for self-defence.

In that context, the Council emphasized the need for the full cooperation of the parties concerned in implementing mandates of peace-keeping operations, as well as relevant Council decisions, and stressed that such operations should neither be a substitute for a political settlement nor should they be expected to...