Speakers warned the international community that tensions are deepening as coastlines vanish, territories are lost, resources become scarce and masses are displaced, as the Security Council held its first ever open debate today on the impact of sea-level rise on international peace and security.
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council in its debate on “Sea-Level Rise: Implications for International Peace and Security”, in New York today:
With cycles of conflict becoming more intense, frequent and complex, the global community must prioritize risk assessments that raise red flags about potential violence against children, senior officials told the Security Council today, as members took stock of progress made in implementing their “children in armed conflict” agenda.
Despite international efforts to defeat Da’esh, the group still poses a considerable threat in many parts of the world, senior United Nations officials told the Security Council today, as members stressed the need to complement the relatively blunt instrument of force with more nuanced, context-specific approaches to remedy socioeconomic inequalities in countries awash with terrorism.
The Security Council today heard urgent calls, from within and outside the United Nations, for de-escalation of the conflict in Ukraine as delegates weighed the multifarious risks posed by arms flows against the need to assist that country defend itself.
There are reasonable grounds to believe that the Syrian Government is responsible for the use of weaponized chlorine gas against residents of the city of Douma in April 2018, the head of the international body responsible for overseeing the global endeavour to eliminate chemical weapons told the Security Council today, as members split on the validity of the investigation on which that conclusion was based.
On 22 December 2022, the Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1533 (2004) concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo discussed the report of his visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda (7-18 November 2022) with members of the Committee.
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Vanessa Frazier (Malta):
As the war in Ukraine approaches its one-year anniversary — with profound spillover effects across global food and energy sectors — a critical agreement between the parties to facilitate the safe export of food and fertilizers must be protected and urgently implemented, the United Nations top humanitarian official told the Security Council today, with speakers calling the Black Sea Grain Initiative a rare “beacon of hope against a bleak backdrop”.
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Vanessa Frazier (Malta):
