DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNOG AND DIRECTOR OF GENEVA CENTRE FOR DEMOCRATIC CONTROL OF ARMED FORCES CO-CHAIR SEMINAR

Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), and Theodor Winkler, the Director of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), co-chaired on 31 October 2006 a joint seminar entitled “Security Sector Reform in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: A Closer Relationship between the United Nations and Regional Organizations”.

The seminar took place in the framework of UNOG’s ongoing partnershipbuilding efforts, facilitating collaborative activities in support of the work of the United Nations. The event brought together over 120 high-level representatives of Governments, the United Nations family, think tanks and academia, demonstrating the broad experience and expertise of “International Geneva” across the different dimensions of post-conflict peacebuilding.

Panellists and participants analyzed the approaches of the United Nations and regional organizations to the central issue of security sector reform in post-conflict peacebuilding and explored possible avenues for enhanced interaction between them in this area. These discussions will feed into the ongoing efforts to strengthen the international community’s peacebuilding work and will help in the development of a comprehensive United Nations security sector framework. The exchanges also made a contribution in the context of the initiative entitled “Our Common Peacebuilding Challenge – the Contribution of International Geneva”, which the Director-General launched on 25 October 2006.

The seminar was the fourth in the series of joint UNOG-DCAF events and followed on from previous debates on different aspects of post-conflict peacebuilding and security sector reform. These meetings have served to raise awareness of the complexities and challenges before the international community in this field and have produced practical proposals to inform and guide future efforts.


For use of the information media; not an official record


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