110 HRES 213 IH: Expressing the sense of the House of U.S. House of Representatives 2007-03-05 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV 110th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 213 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES March 5, 2007 Mr. Wynn (for himself, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Payne, Mr. Walsh of New York, Mr. Blumenauer, and Mr. Frank of Massachusetts) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that a United Nations Emergency Peace Service capable of intervening in the early stages of a humanitarian crisis could save millions of lives, billions of dollars, and is in the interests of the United States.

Whereas genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity have occurred in Rwanda, Cambodia, the former Yugoslavia, East Timor, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Liberia, and elsewhere; Whereas the United States Government has found that genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity are occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan; Whereas, at the September 2005 World Summit, the Member States of the United Nations declared that the international community has a responsibility to protect these populations when countries are unable or unwilling to prevent genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity; Whereas, at the 2005 World Summit, over 150 heads of state signed a document which the United Nations General Assembly adopted, declaring that we are prepared to take collective action, in a timely and decisive manner, through the Security Council … should peaceful means be inadequate and national authorities manifestly fail to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.; Whereas failed and failing states can become breeding grounds for terrorism, crime, trafficking, humanitarian catastrophes, and other threats to the United States; Whereas the 2006 National Security Strategy clearly states that preventing humanitarian disasters and strengthening fragile states is in the national security interests of the United States; Whereas numerous studies have shown that early intervention in humanitarian crises could save millions of lives and billions of dollars; Whereas the international community spent approximately $200,000,000,000 on conflict management during the 1990s; Whereas approximately $130,000,000,000 of that amount could have been saved through a more effective preventive approach to conflict management; Whereas the United Nations does not have a rapid deployment capacity to intervene to avert humanitarian catastrophes; Whereas there is a need for a United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS) that could be rapidly deployed during the early stages of a humanitarian crisis to save lives; Whereas UNEPS could assist in the early implementation of peace accords by providing a ready reserve corps that could be deployed immediately; Whereas UNEPS would complement, but not replace, existing peace operations of the United Nations, regional organizations, and national governments; Whereas, if UNEPS had existed at the time that the Government of Sudan and the rebels in Darfur signed the May 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement, UNEPS could have been quickly deployed to cement peace before it unraveled and prevented the loss and displacement of thousands of individuals; Whereas, if ongoing ethnic and sectarian mass killings and crimes against humanity continue to occur in Iraq and if the Iraqi Government does not have the capacity to protect its citizens from these crimes, then all members of the international community, should, through the United Nations, exercise their mutual responsibility to protect the citizens of Iraq; Whereas, if the Security Council and the Iraqi Government identified the need for a peacekeeping force to guarantee a negotiated agreement between factions in Iraq and UNEPS existed, a UNEPS force could be quickly deployed to seize the opportunity and help facilitate the implementation of that agreement in advance of a traditional United Nations peacekeeping force or as a surge capacity to buttress peacekeepers already in place; and Whereas UNEPS could be created for a start-up cost of $2,000,000,000 and annual costs of less than $1,000,000,000: Now, therefore, be it

That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that— (1)the United States should use its voice, vote, and influence at the United Nations to facilitate and support the creation of a United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS); and (2)UNEPS— (A)should be a permanent entity based at designated sites of the United Nations, should include mobile field headquarters, and should be able to act immediately to address an emerging humanitarian crisis; (B)should be comprised of individuals who are recruited from United Nations Member States and who are carefully selected, expertly trained, and coherently organized; (C)should be a dedicated service with a wide range of professional skills within a single command structure, prepared to conduct multiple functions in diverse United Nations operations; and (D)should be able to provide an integrated service encompassing 12,000 to 18,000 civilian, police, judicial, military, and relief professionals.