Security Council: Meetings Coverage

The Security Council today renewed the mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) until 16 December, determining that the situation in that country constituted a threat to international peace and security.

Ahead of an open debate on keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists and other non-State groups, the Security Council called today for intensified efforts to ensure the development of a secure international framework for that purpose in the face rapid technological advances and increasingly ambitious malefactors.

Honouring the eighth United Nations Secretary-General as he prepared to step down on 31 December after a decade at the head of the world body, the Security Council in a special tribute meeting praised Ban Ki-Moon this morning for his dedicated work on behalf of serving “We the people” above any other consideration.

The current battle in Syria must be followed by an immediate end to violence by all sides, unfettered humanitarian access and genuine engagement without preconditions on finding a political solution to stop the conflict, the Security Council heard today in a meeting called by France and the United Kingdom.

Unless the impasse in Sudan’s Darfur region was broken, the five suspects indicted for grave crimes committed there would remain at large and impunity would encourage new crimes, the International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor warned today as she delivered her twenty-fourth biannual briefing to the Security Council.

The Security Council decided this morning to extend the mandate of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) by nine months, until 15 September 2017.

Seeking to strengthen the international response to terrorism, the Security Council today unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at enhancing and fortifying judicial cooperation worldwide. 

In discussing human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Security Council risked disturbing the situation in that country, some delegates warned today following a procedural vote that narrowly approved a meeting on that subject.

Confident that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia would “close its doors” at the end of 2017, its President informed the Security Council today that the Tribunal only had one trial, one appeal and one contempt case remaining and requested a final extension of the judges’ mandates until the end of November next year.

Despite a peaceful and successful transition in the Central African Republic earlier in 2016, the recent outbreak of violence there had demonstrated the extremely fragile situation in the country, the Secretary-General’s Acting Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), told the Security Council today.