At its 71st Meeting, on 4 May 2018, the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, in connection with the examination of the second report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Mali (document S/2018/136), covering the period from January 2014 to June 2017, agreed to convey the following messages through a public statement by the Chair of the Working Group:
Strengthening the principles of international law and the protection of civilians in armed conflict would be two of the major themes that the Security Council would address in the coming month, Joanna Wronecka (Poland), Council President for May, said today as she laid out the organ’s monthly programme of work at a Headquarters press briefing.
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Joanna Wronecka (Poland):
On 29 April 2018, the following entry on the Committee’s List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and other measures relating to attempts to illicitly export petroleum, including crude oil and refined petroleum products, from Libya (the Libya Sanctions List) expired:
The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 31 October 2018, calling for a “realistic, practicable and enduring” political solution to end the decades‑old conflict.
On 26 April 2018, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2127 (2013) concerning the Central African Republic enacted the amendments specified with underline and strikethrough in the entry below on its Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the asset freeze and travel ban set out in paragraphs 9 and 16 of Security Council resolution 2399 (2018), adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.
The Security Council, acting in parallel with the General Assembly today, took note of a raft of proposals by Secretary‑General António Guterres on ways to accelerate the United Nations “Peacebuilding and sustaining peace” agenda, as well as the Assembly’s decision to track progress towards its implementation. (For more information, please see Press Release GA/12014.)
Amid escalating tensions, outside interference and growing risks of potentially explosive miscalculations, from Gaza to Syria to Yemen, everyone in the region must “step away from the brink”, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council today.
Amid the highest levels of violence against civilians since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, concrete action must be taken to turn pledges of aid into progress on the ground, the Security Council heard today.
With the adoption of landmark resolutions on the concepts of peacebuilding and sustaining peace imminent, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged Member States to strengthen their focus on conflict prevention, address its root causes and embark on a “quantum leap” in funding those critical activities, in a briefing to the Security Council this afternoon.
