Security Council: No name

The promise of a new Somalia emerging from decades of violence and instability remained fragile, the Security Council heard today, amid calls for stepped-up measures by the United Nations to bolster the Government’s capacity to protect international operations over the long term.

The Security Council adopted today its annual report to the General Assembly for the period 1 August 2012 to 31 July 2013.

While “slow and tortured” improvements had helped the Security Council gradually build greater transparency and efficiency, the 15-member body must urgently step up efforts to improve its working methods, including through the collective voluntary suspension of veto rights in cases involving mass atrocity crimes, speakers said today.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Agshin Mehdiyev (Azerbaijan):

The Security Council today recognized the importance of strengthened cooperation with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), acknowledging the United Nations’ continued dialogue with the 57-member body in the areas of peacemaking, preventive diplomacy, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

Three weeks after the Security Council expressed alarm at the significant and rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Syria, urging all appropriate steps be taken to protect civilians, the international response on the ground remained “severely insufficient”, the top United Nations humanitarian official said today.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Agshin Mehdiyev (Azerbaijan):

On 24 October 2013, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) approved the addition of the entry specified below to its Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2083 (2012) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Agshin Mehdiyev (Azerbaijan):

Expressing serious concern at the recent spate of attacks on peacekeepers and humanitarian personnel in Darfur, the top African Union-United Nations official there urged the Government of Sudan to do more to bring the perpetrators to justice and end restrictions on the delivery of relief assistance.