Amid the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, defensive military assistance to Kyiv has continued while weapons and ammunition have been reportedly transferred to the Russian Federation Armed Forces, a top United Nations disarmament official told the Security Council today, stressing that such actions risk escalating the conflict.
Following the Russian Federation’s 30 August veto of a draft resolution that would have renewed certain Security Council measures against those obstructing peace in Mali, speakers in the General Assembly considered its implications amidst the demanded withdrawal of United Nations presence from a country still in crisis.
The General Assembly today adopted its work programme for the seventy-eighth session, deciding to include a range of new items on its agenda, including the “Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction” — a historic maritime biodiversity treaty adopted on 19 June by the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction.
The Russian Federation’s latest illegal attempts to organize new so-called electoral processes in the occupied areas of Ukraine further undermine the prospects for peace, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, as speakers challenged the validity of the ongoing polls while others called for de-escalation and negotiation.
While peacekeeping is not a panacea for converging crises, it does support political processes and protect civilians, the United Nations senior peace operations official told the Security Council today, as members considered the factors necessary for the success of such operations amidst the drawdown of the UN’s presence in Mali and the questioning of its utility in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Determining that the situation in Somalia continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security in the region, the Security Council today unanimously adopted a draft resolution addressing the disposal of the country’s charcoal stockpiles as a one-off exemption to previous resolutions.
All efforts by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to organize the next round of consultations with Syria remain unsuccessful, the United Nations disarmament chief told the Security Council today, calling for Syria’s full cooperation to close all outstanding issues.
The General Assembly opened its seventy-eighth session today, with its newly elected President calling on Member States to come together and commit to advancing the causes of peace, prosperity and sustainability in the face of a world beset by a series of cascading challenges.
The Security Council must be more transparent and inclusive in conducting its business to meet the challenges posed by current global, regional conflicts and crises, speakers stressed today, as they called for improved working methods, including a more equal distribution of duties to draft resolutions and fewer closed-door consultations.
The General Assembly concluded its seventy-seventh session today, with outgoing President Csaba Kőrösi (Hungary) urging Member States’ international cooperation, despite geopolitical conflicts, to forge future-proof integrated solutions to global challenges and uphold their promises to the world’s 8 billion people.
