The Security Council today failed to adopt two draft resolutions on extending the authorization for the mechanism that allows cross‑border delivery of humanitarian aid in Syria today — one tabled by Belgium, Germany and Kuwait; the other by the Russian Federation.
The Special Envoy for Syria told the Security Council today that he is forging ahead with efforts to unify Government and opposition representatives around an agreed agenda for the newly launched Constitutional Committee, aiming to bring the protracted political process back on track.
The Economic and Social Council today filled two regular vacancies in the Executive Board of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN‑Women) and elected four additional members to the Executive Committee of the Programme of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
As waning multilateralism and burgeoning inequalities threaten to side-track the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the General Assembly today adopted 47 resolutions and four related decisions aimed at bolstering nation’s efforts to reach agreed goals.
Iran’s delegate described United States sanctions against his country as “tantamount to economic terrorism”, while a senior United Nations official called for preventing a serious confrontation in the region, as the Security Council considered the milestone 2015 agreement governing Tehran’s nuclear activities.
The scale of humanitarian needs in Syria will remain vast in 2020, with an estimated 11 million civilians projected to require assistance on a regular basis and 5 million in acute need of help, a senior humanitarian official told the Security Council today, urging that a mandate for the cross-border delivery of vital aid through neighbouring countries be renewed.
Expressing concern that ongoing military activities have the potential to escalate tensions between Israel and Syria, the Security Council today decided to renew the mandate of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) for six months.
The Security Council today decided to extend until 20 December 2020 the mandate of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), along with its Intervention Brigade.
The General Assembly proclaimed 2022‑2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages today, inviting indigenous peoples — as custodians — to initiate ideas for preserving this endangered facet of their cultural and social life, as it adopted 60 resolutions and one decision recommended by its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).
With extraordinary political change under way in Sudan, its transitional Government must ensure justice for the victims of atrocities in Darfur by either prosecuting the five suspects wanted by the International Criminal Court, including former President Omer Hassan Ahmed al‑Bashir, in Sudanese courts or to send them to The Hague for trial without delay, the Chief Prosecutor told the Security Council today.
