Abstract
This paper intends to concentrate on the Community of Sant’Egidio, established in Rome in 1968, and its contribution to the maintenance of peace. The analysis will start from the first and best known among its successes, the one achieved in Mozambique: thanks to the negotiations which took place at the headquarters of the Community, on 4.10.1992 the legitimate government and guerrillas ended a 17-year conflict by signing the General Peace Agreement. Its implementation was then placed in the hands of ONUMOZ, established by Security Council Resolution 797 (1992). Afterwards, the paper will concentrate on one of the recent initiatives of Sant’Egidio, the one in the Central African Republic: here too, the Community has proven to be able to collaborate effectively with the UN and to complete its action. In order to formalise such collaboration, on 9.6.2017 the UN and Sant’Egidio signed an agreement which provides a centralised and regular channel of communication between the two organisations. Such unprecedented agreement attracts considerable interest: indeed, the role assigned by the UN Charter to NGOs is quite weak, since it is limited to the consultative status with ECOSOC provided by article 71. Therefore, the agreement at stake can be interpreted as an attempt to fill the gap between the active involvement of the Community in the international arena and the limited role recognised to it by the UN system.