3. Seminars and Events

Some participants found positive and encouraging signs while others remained skeptical about the possibility for South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and his major adversary, the former vice-president and opposition leader Riek Machar and other tribal leaders to translate the agreement reached in September 2018 into the formation of a stable government. A summary report of discussion will follow.

The moderator, Ms. Mio Sato, Chief of Mission, IOM in Japan, started the session by explaining that Human Mobility has been increasingly addressed as one of the common issues by the international community, as exemplified by that Human Mobility is recognized as one of the core issues for 2030 SDG Agenda of the UN and that two Global Compacts (namely, with respect to refugees and migration) had been introduced at the UN General Assembly on September 19, 2016. Ms. Sato stated that the aim for this session was to discuss Human Mobility in the light of Peacebuilding assistance while addressing the case study of Rohingya Refugees and responses relating to refugees and migration.

In opening the session, Professor Katsumi acting as Moderator said that this session would discuss involvement of major actors including US, China and Japan in tackling with broad issues relating to UN peace operations not limited to UN PKOs but inclusive of peacebuilding activities. He introduced the three Panellists, the Commentator and the Rapporteur.

Mr. Yasushi Akashi looked at how the UN peace operations had evolved over the years in Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa and pointed out the need to ascertain how Japan can contribute to the UN peace operations in the future. Mr. Akashi served as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Cambodia and in the former Yugoslavia.

2018 Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum was held at JICA Ichigaya Building on December 8, 2018. It was opened by former Under-Secretary-General and Special Representatives of the Secretary-General Mr. Yasushi Akashi and keynote speech was delivered by Ambassador Fumio Iwai, Secretary-General of the Secretariat of the International Peace Cooperation Headquarters of the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan. Please find the program with pictures of meetings and participants.

Takakazu Ito, Senior Programme Officer, Department for Field Support, United Nations made a presentation “Triangular Partnership to strengthen UN Peacekeeping Operations” and Herman Salton, Associate Professor of ICU on “Dangerous Diplomacy: Bureaucracy, Power Politics, and the Role of the UN Secretariat in Rwanda.” (Reported by Maja Liechti)

To commemorate the end of the War, Ambassadors of Germany and France, Dr Hans Carl von Werthern and Dr. Laurent PIC held a symposium on 5th November 2018 to discuss the war and its lessons for today’s politics.

This is the second meeting of the Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum following its inauguration in 2018. It is organized by the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan (GPAJ) in cooperation with the ACUNS Tokyo Liaison Office. The purpose of the Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum is to enable the members of GPAJ and interested scholars and practitioners of UN peace operations to engage in dialogue concerning the relevance of theories, concepts, policies and practices. This year, the overall theme of the meeting is “Peacebuilding and Global Governance in a Turbulent Age.” The participants will have opportunities to present and comment on papers that are relevant to peacebuilding and global governance. The meeting will consist of a plenary session in the morning and several group discussion sessions in the afternoon. The subject matters for discussion are indicated in the program outline below. If there is a need for additional group discussions, it is possible to add one more discussion session in the afternoon as meetings rooms have been secured. The Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum is open to participation by interested persons from not only Japan but other countries in order to enable free exchange of divergent views. For this purpose, the plenary session in the morning and two of the group discussion sessions in the afternoon will be held in English. Summary records of the proceeding will be kept by the secretariat and posted on the website of the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan (http://www.gpaj.org/) and the ACUNS Tokyo Liaison Office (http://www.acuns.tokyo/). You are welcome to participate in the Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum. Please note that the participants are expected to meet themselves the costs of their travel and accommodation as GPAJ has no funds to make available for this purpose. If you are interested in participating in the meeting, please send your message to secretariat[@]gpaj.org. Your message will be sent to the organizers/moderators of respective sessions.

Key points made during the discussion included the importance for UNDEF to sustain universal value, efficiency in execution of its programs and activities; to assist the institution building; to encourage local, national and regional ownership in democratization process. There was a consensus that Japan should support financially and technically the democratization process and sustaining democratic principles of governance.

Ambassador in charge of International Cooperation for Countering Terrorism and International Organized Crime, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan Eiji YAMAMOTO, explained the incidents of international terrorism has reached its highest frequency in OECD countries, while it declined in Southeast Asia.