To uphold its noble legacy, United Nations peacekeepers must adopt a more flexible posture, tailored to specific conflicts and endowed with the resources and capabilities needed to improve foresight in tackling new threats, delegates in the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations said today as they concluded their general debate.
The time had come for the United Nations, its Member States and other partners to engage in a frank discussion on the future of peacekeeping in response to ever-changing threats and challenges in some of the world’s most hostile environments, the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations heard today as it opened its 2018 substantive session.
The Economic and Social Council today elected by acclamation Italy to the Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission.
Despite military setbacks and loss of territory last year, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh) was a present and continuing threat, the senior United Nations official for counter‑terrorism told the Security Council today, as he presented the Secretary‑General’s sixth report on the international and regional threat posed by that group (document S/2018/80).
The Security Council, acting unanimously under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, today adopted a resolution extending for 13 months the mandate of the Panel of Experts appointed to monitor the arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze imposed on those impeding peace in Sudan’s Darfur region.
The Commission for Social Development, acting by consensus on the final day of its fifty‑sixth session, decided to forward four draft resolutions to the Economic and Social Council, including one aimed at further focusing the Commission’s working methods in future sessions.
The establishment of the Specialist Chambers in Kosovo had been a major achievement, and recent attempts to abrogate the 2015 law supporting its work were cause for grave concern, the senior United Nations official in the Balkans told the Security Council today, adding that the assassination of a Kosovo-Serb politician in January had shaken the region.
The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today concluded substantive work of its 2018 regular session with the presentation of the body’s draft report, which will be finalized for adoption later this month.
On the seventh day of its 2018 regular session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today took note of 394 quadrennial reports from various organizations, while postponing action on several other reports after members of the body requested additional information from their respective applicant groups.
Amid complex crises faced by peacekeepers, and ongoing strategic reviews of those operations, now was an ideal time to examine the Security Council’s working methods, delegates said today in an open debate focused on improving efficiency, transparency, inclusiveness and accountability.
