Cairo, Egypt - Final preparations are underway for the High-Level Workshop to be held on 1-2 March 2016 in Cairo, titled “Arab Perspectives on the Future of the UN Peace and Security Architecture: Towards a Timely, Collective and Effective Response”.  #CCCPA_UNPS 

The Workshop, organized by the Cairo Center, will feature a lineup of high-profile speakers, including the President of the General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft, via a video message; H.E. Amre Moussa, former Secretary General of the League of Arab States and Chairman of CCCPA’s International Advisory Board; Ahmed Bin Helli, Deputy Secretary General of League of Arab States; and El-Ghassim Wane, Assistant UN Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hamdy Sanad Loza, will address the opening session on behalf of the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry.

Other notable speakers include H.E. Aisha Abdullahi, AU Commissioner for Political Affairs; H.E. Abdallah Al-Maatoq, UN Secretary General’s Envoy for Kuwait; H.E. Khalis ELzawady, Assistant Secretary General of the League of Arab States for National Security; and Dr. Youssef Mahmoud, member of the UN Peacekeeping Operations review panel.

Also participating in the Workshop are officials from member states of the League of Arab States; international, regional and sub-regional organizations and UN agencies; Arab think tanks and eminent experts; in addition to a number of prominent members of the Egyptian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense.

The Workshop is being organized in partnership with the Office of the President of the UN General Assembly and the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and is part of the preparatory discussions aimed at informing the High-Level Thematic Debate of the General Assembly that the President of the Assembly has taken the initiative to organize on 10-11 May 2016 on “UN, Peace and Security”.

The Workshop will provide participants with an opportunity to reflect on the recommendations of the recent reviews of UN peacekeeping operations and peacebuilding architecture, identify synergies, bridge gaps, and ease tensions, with the ultimate objective of identifying priority areas and presenting suggestions for systematic and realistic reforms at the UN that garner the support of the majority of its members. Discussions will touch upon important topics such as ‘Building on the Synergies and Bridging the Gaps of UN Reviews’; ‘The Primacy of Politics: From Preventing Conflict to Sustaining Peace’; ‘Trilateral Cooperation: Enhancing the Role of Troop and Police Contributing Countries from Mandate to Exit’; and ‘Enhancing National Ownership: Responding to the Real Needs’.

The Workshop comes in the context of CCCPA’s role as a voice of the global south in consequential debates about the future of the UN peace and security architecture and its involvement in the process of the UN reviews. In November 2014, the Center - in collaboration with the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) and the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) - hosted an international workshop on “Regional Aspects of Peacebuilding: Identifying Gaps, Challenges and Opportunities”; and in March 2015, it hosted the “MENA Consultations of the High Level Independent Panel on Peacekeeping Operations”.

For more information, please contact Ms. Esraa Saied at esraa.saied@cairopeacekeeping.org

Founded in 1994 by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Cairo Center for Conflict Resolution & Peacekeeping in Africa is an independent, non-partisan center of excellence in training, education and capacity building in the fields of conflict resolution, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.