With Haiti still reeling from disastrous earthquakes that overwhelmed the world's ability to deliver quick and effective relief aid, Qatar is asking the United Nations to establish an emergency humanitarian relief force to be staffed by various nations' military units and civilian experts.
Qatar's prime minister and foreign affairs minister, Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Al Thani, said Wednesday he wants to promote the idea, still in its planning stages, on the sidelines of the next General Assembly this autumn.
The core of the idea of the Humanitarian Operation Force, which Sheik Hamad dubbed HOPEFOR, is to have various nations designate quick-relief military units to distribute aid, probably military logistics units.
The operation would be funded through donations from U.N. member states, he said, which would be collected and pooled so that there would be a ready reserve fund in case of a disaster.
The new agency would establish an instant field headquarters at the disaster site "augmented by regional experts, capable of assisting local area emergency management, together with national authorities," he said.
The concept is not far removed from a long-standing idea going back to the 1980s, when Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali urged the creation of a rapid response U.N. peacekeeping force built upon designated military units of volunteering member states, to cut down on the months of organization and planning that go into U.N. peace operations.
That idea never gelled, as many nations -- first among them, the United States -- declined to put their military forces under a standing U.N. command.
It is also unclear how enthusiastic U.N. members will be in a time of global recession to contribute more dues to a new layer of bureaucracy, which would have its own free-standing headquarters at a site yet to be designated.