Outgoing Chairs of Security Council subsidiary bodies emphasized to the 15-member organ today the importance of listening to varied perspectives, conducting field visits and remaining free of political considerations, as speakers alternately highlighted the importance of sanctions regimes and suggested ways to ensure they are developed and used effectively.
Briefing the Security Council today on the significant progress and tangible results in its core judicial cases, the President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals called for the international community’s continued support of its functions as it shifts from an operational to a residual court that safeguards the legacy of the Tribunals for war crimes committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, as well as the Mechanism itself.
Acting on the recommendation of its Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), the General Assembly today adopted 33 draft resolutions and two draft decisions, including texts concerning the mandate and operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, delegates at the General Assembly today considered two draft resolutions that address a diverse range of challenges, including climate change, loss of marine biodiversity, and sustainable fisheries.
States must apply effective arms-control measures to prevent the diversion of weapons supplied to Ukraine, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, as some Council members defended their decision to continue providing military support to Kyiv while others detailed the danger of doing so.
The Security Council today decided to provide a “humanitarian carve-out” — a standing humanitarian exemption — to the asset freeze measures imposed by United Nations sanctions regimes.
Despite the best efforts of the United Nations Stabilization Mission, the security situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is worsening, with pervasive violence and armed groups killing civilians in the eastern region of the country, the Special Representative and Head of the Mission warned the Security Council today.
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the Secretariat’s proposal to allot nearly $79 million for the 2023 activities of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals as it winds down its work investigating crimes committed during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Celebrating the forty years of marine multilateralism ushered in by the adoption of “the constitution of the oceans,” speakers in the General Assembly today underscored the need to continue that tradition with a binding instrument on sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction.
Noting that recent elections held in Angola, Congo, São Tomé and Príncipe and Equatorial Guinea showed significant progress towards democracy and rule of law, as well as a greater participation of women, briefers told the Security Council today that strengthened international and regional cooperation was needed to build and sustain peace and democratic strides in Central Africa in the face of persistent security challenges.
