The Security Council today decided to extend, for six months, mandates of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) relating to the delivery of humanitarian assistance and the protection of civilians, among others, while also underlining that its tasks relating to the contested region’s Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism would be extended no further unless the parties to the dispute accelerated progress in several key areas.
The Security Council today decided to reauthorize member States of the African Union to maintain their deployment of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) until 31 July 2018, recalling also its decision to authorize the regional bloc to reduce the Mission’s troop and police personnel levels by the end of October.
Recounting the haunting stories of Rohingya refugees they met during a recent mission to Bangladesh and Myanmar, Security Council members today described mass rapes, attacks on children and the razing of entire villages, stressing that the visit had “awakened their collective conscience” into robust and concerted action.
Rising political temperatures between Pristina and Belgrade were threatening to derail efforts to find lasting peace in Kosovo, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General told the Security Council today.
The Security Council today stressed that the “primacy of politics” should be the hallmark of the United Nations approach to conflict resolution, with political solutions guiding the design and deployment of the Organization’s peacekeeping operations.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up budget proposals for two Middle East peacekeeping missions and one special political mission this morning, with Iraq’s representative voicing concern over a proposed reduction in 2018 funding for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) so soon after Iraqi forces had repulsed Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh).
The United Nations senior management official today laid out the Organization’s semi-annual financial situation to Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) members gathered for the second part of a resumed seventy-second session focusing on the multibillion dollar financing needs of more than a dozen active peacekeeping missions.
The United Nations Forum on Forests, concluding its thirteenth session today, adopted a wide-ranging omnibus resolution aimed at spotlighting forests ‑ as well as the scope, work and funding of the various intergovernmental organs working to ensure their protection and well-being ‑ at such high-level platforms as the Economic and Social Council’s annual high-level political forum on sustainable development.
Closing its fortieth session today, the Committee on Information approved two draft resolutions, the second of which emphasized the need to promote multilingualism, bridge the digital divide and maintain the use of traditional media.
SAINT GEORGE'S, Grenada, 11 May – The Pacific Regional Seminar on Decolonization concluded in Grenada today, with participants stressing that joint action would be required to address the challenges facing Non-Self-Governing Territories, especially in light of their vulnerability to natural disasters and environmental degradation.
