General Assembly
Sixty-fourth session
Item 10 of the provisional agenda*
Report of the Peacebuilding Commission
Security Council
Sixty-fourth year
I. Introduction
1. The present report has been prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution 60/180 and Security Council resolution 1645 (2005), in which the Peacebuilding Commission was requested to submit an annual report to the General Assembly for an annual debate and review. The report will also be submitted to the Security Council, pursuant to its resolution 1646 (2005), for an annual debate. The report reviews the work of the Peacebuilding Commission during its third session, from 23 June 2008 to 30 June 2009.
II. Work of the Commission
2. The end of the second session marked the expiration of the terms of membership of 24 out of 31 members of the Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission. In the absence of agreement among the members of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council on the regional distribution of seats, the election of their respective members to the Organizational Committee, as well as the confirmation of members selected by the group of top providers of military and police personnel on the Organizational Committee, was postponed. Consequently, the terms of membership of the incumbent members from the aforementioned categories and the terms of office of the Chairperson, Yukio Takasu (Japan), and the Chairs of the various configurations were extended until the two organs were able to elect their respective members.
3. On 18 December 2008, and following an agreement reached among Member States and their respective regional groups on the distribution of seats until 31 December 2010, the General Assembly adopted resolution 63/145, establishing that, beginning with the sixty-third session of the Assembly, the term of office for elected members of the General Assembly to the Organizational Committee shall begin on 1 January. The resolution invited all other bodies with members on the Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission to adjust the term of office of their respective members accordingly.
4. On 7 January 2009, the Commission elected its new Chairperson, Heraldo Muñoz (Chile), and Vice-Chairperson,1 Park In-kook (Republic of Korea). The Burundi, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone configurations were chaired by Anders Lidén (Sweden), Jan Grauls (Belgium), Maria Luiza R. Viotti (Brazil) and Frank Majoor (Netherlands), respectively. The Working Group on Lessons Learned was chaired by Carmen Gallardo Hernández (El Salvador).
5. On 25 February and 29 June 2009, on the basis of consultations with the Governments of Sierra Leone and Burundi, the Organizational Committee elected the Permanent Representative of Canada as the new Chair of the Sierra Leone configuration and the Permanent Representative of Switzerland as the new Chair of the Burundi configuration. The election of the new Chairs of the Sierra Leone and the Burundi configurations followed the resignations of the Permanent Representatives of the Netherlands and Sweden.
6. The various configurations of the Peacebuilding Commission met regularly and addressed issues pertaining to their respective areas of competence.
* A/64/150.
