With the ongoing displacement of nearly 70 million people around the world driven mostly by conflict, the Security Council has a crucial role to play in resolving the resultant global crisis, the head of the United Nations refugee agency said as he briefed the 15-member organ today.
The Security Council expressed today its readiness to review the arms embargo it imposed on the Central African Republic, announcing a set of benchmarks to guide its decision as to whether it will suspend or progressively lift that restriction later this year.
As a United Nations justice support operation in Haiti prepares to end its mandate, the Security Council today discussed the best path forward over the next six months to foster stability and craft a new political mission amid political uncertainty and urgent humanitarian needs.
Noting some advances since the inauguration in September 2018 of re-elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the Security Council today urged the Government of Mali and the Plateforme and Coordination armed groups to continue expediting implementation of their peace accord while urging all parties to refrain from actions undermining progress.
With the erosion of the disarmament and arms control framework that reaped significant post-cold-war-era gains, all States must work collectively towards a new twenty-first‑century approach to rid the world of atomic bombs, the Security Council heard today as it considered the existing regime ahead of the 2020 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
The humanitarian space is increasingly under threat as conflicts become more complex and State and non-State combatants ignore international law, target civilians, resort to siege and starvation as a tactic of war while deliberately hindering aid operations, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs told the Security Council today.
The Security Council today called for an independent strategic review of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) by 20 October, including the articulation of a phased, progressive and comprehensive exit strategy, while extending the mandate of that peacekeeping operation for nine months until 20 December.
Emphasizing that “investing in peace in Mali is an investment in global security”, the Secretary-General urged the Security Council today to maintain full support for the United Nations mission in the country, calling on the Government, opposition leaders and signatories to the 2015 peace agreement to redouble efforts to restore calm.
The Security Council called upon Member States today to step up efforts to combat and criminalize the financing of terrorists and their activities, adopting a resolution on the issue before holding a day-long open debate that placed the spotlight on international cooperation, capacity-building and respect for international law.
Most Security Council members expressed regret today over the decision by the United States to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Syrian Golan, stressing the importance of upholding international law, as the 15-member organ heard briefings on the situation in that occupied territory.
