CIAO DATE: 04/05

Practical Confidence-Building Measures: Does Good Governance of the Security Sector Matter?

Abstract

The proposition that good governance of the security sector may have a positive impact on international peace and security has increasingly been recognised by the international community during recent years, be it through the setting of political standards or politically-binding norms within regional organisations or through the discussion of related issues in regional security arrangements. Whereas these normand standard-setting processes have progressed on the regional level, they are still at their inception on the global level. Notwithstanding these factors, the issue has recently been taken up - albeit rather informally - in a broader UN context. While the UNDP's Human Development Report 2002 has established a conceptual link between democratic governance of the security sector, conflict prevention and peace-building from a developmental perspective, the same issue is being considered from a disarmament perspective in the framework of the ongoing discussions within the United Nations Disarmament Commission (UNDC) on practical confidence-building measures (CBM) in the field of conventional arms.

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