1 April 2017: UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Peter Thomson said the international community is “only now starting to fully understand” that sustaining peace and achieving sustainable development “stand or fall together.” His remarks came during an event titled ‘Building sustainable peace for all: Synergies between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustaining Peace.’ The same topic was the subject of a UNGA High-level Event that convened from 24-25 January.

“Sustaining peace” is the subject of resolutions concurrently adopted by the UNGA (70/262) and UN Security Council (2282 (2016)) in April 2016, which emphasize the need for addressing the root causes of conflict, such as climate change and the illicit trade in natural resources, as well as for sufficient development financing. The approach stresses the need for long-term efforts to prevent conflict and prevent the recurrence of violence after wars, including through inclusiveness, and emphasizes a cross-sectoral strategy.

Boutros-Ghali’s ‘Agenda for Peace’ called to recognize the fundamental importance of sustainable development and human rights.

At a lunch event organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, and the Cairo Centre for Conflict Resolution and Peacekeeping in Africa, on 1 April 2017, in New York, Thomson said the Sustaining Peace resolutions capture an idea originally advanced by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in his ‘Agenda for Peace,’ that a comprehensive, cross-sectoral and integrated approach is needed to advance international peace and security, and that this approach must recognize the fundamental importance of sustainable development and human rights. Thomson said the 2030 Agenda recognizes the importance of peaceful, just and inclusive societies in order to achieve the 17 SDGs, while the sustaining peace resolutions underline the need for sustainable development in order to sustain peace.

Among current challenges to peace, Thomson cited the highest number of simultaneous peace and security threats, the largest refugee and humanitarian crisis since World War II, and large-scale environmental destruction. He said these forces undermine the conditions for achieving sustainable peace, prosperity and development. He also noted that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres seeks to reform the UN to ensure it can do more to prevent conflict and prevent peace, highlighting this as a “new opportunity” to integrate peace, development, human rights and humanitarian efforts into a coherent, coordinated approach. Thomson called on Member States to ensure inclusive national ownership of peace and development processes, noting the need for development gains reach people affected by conflict and fragility, and to support UN reform efforts, to ensure the multilateral system has the tools it needs.

On 24-25 January, Thomson convened a UNGA dialogue on ‘Building sustainable peace for all: Synergies between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustaining Peace.’ A summary released on 29 March identifies five key themes that emerged from that event’s discussions: the importance of conflict prevention, in particular by addressing root causes, in order to create an enabling environment for sustainable development; the need for inclusivity in these efforts, especially of women and youth; the importance of strengthening of human rights protections, justice and rule of law, and of effective and accountable institutions to sustainable peace and development, “not only to achieve SDG 16, but as a golden thread running through the implementation of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs); the need to ensure coordinated, complementary and mutually enforcing work by governments, the UN system, civil society, international financial institutions, the private sector and regional organizations; and the importance of adequate and sustainable financing for peace and development efforts.

The summary notes that the UNGA will hold a plenary debate on ‘Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace’ in April, as well a high-level meeting on that topic during the 72nd session (2017-2018), when it considers a report of the UN Secretary-General. [UNGA President Remarks] [Summary of High-level Event] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on UNGA High-level Event] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on Sustaining Peace Resolutions]