Amid an unconscionable escalation of attacks impacting Ukrainian civilians, world leaders came together at the “Summit on Peace in Ukraine” — hosted by Switzerland on 15 and 16 June — a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, as many delegates welcomed the summit’s common vision in several key areas, including nuclear safety, the exchange of prisoners of war and the return of deported and unlawfully displaced Ukrainian children.
With famine impending, human rights violations on the rise and fighting escalating between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, the international community must work towards an immediate ceasefire in Sudan, senior United Nations officials and a women’s rights activist told the Security Council today.
As the United Nations’ disarmament chief urged just and lasting peace in Ukraine before the Security Council today, its members — meeting again, at the Russian Federation’s behest, on Western arms deliveries to that country — alternately reiterated Kyiv’s right to defend itself, pointed to Moscow’s procurement of arms from third States and called for dialogue ahead of a peace summit that will occur in Switzerland on 15-16 June.
Violence often starts with words — words of hatred that spread intolerance, divide societies, and promote and endorse discrimination, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, as members examined the international community’s response to such harmful attitude and rhetoric.
Parties that violate the arms embargo in Sudan may be subject to targeted sanctions, the senior United Nations official on that file warned, while Sudan’s representative said that the current sanctions regime has disrupted his country’s ability to maintain security by depriving its Armed Forces of equipment while the Rapid Support Forces continuously violate the measure.
Amid the alarming humanitarian situation in Sudan, the Security Council today adopted by 14 votes in favour — with the Russian Federation abstaining — a resolution demanding that the Rapid Support Forces halt the siege of El Fasher and calling for an immediate halt to the fighting and de-escalation in and around the capital city of North Darfur State.
There is an urgent need to address recent concerning developments in Yemen, which compound existing obstacles to lasting peace in the country, senior United Nations officials told the Security Council today, pointing to the detention of UN colleagues and a slew of stringent banking directives expected to worsen the already dire humanitarian emergency gripping the country.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea invests most of its efforts into developing its military power, ignoring the State’s responsibility to allow its people to live full lives, a defector from that country told the Security Council today, stating that he wanted to become his country’s diplomat before discovering its “horrific truth”.
While renewed cooperation between Syrian authorities and the Declaration Assessment Team of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has borne positive results, the United Nations’ disarmament chief told the Security Council today that further cooperation is needed, as Council members debated whether the organ should continue to meet on this file despite slow progress in its resolution.
Delegates today welcomed milestones reached by a United Nations war crime court in completing its judicial phase for atrocities committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and called for renewed support for its duties related to accountability and justice, as the Security Council heard briefings from top officials of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), ahead of a resolution to renew its mandate later in June.
