The United Nations was committed to strengthening its partnership with regional organizations in Eurasia and Central Asia on peace and security matters, even though their strategies may sometimes differ, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council today.
Evoking the “apocalyptic horror” of bombed and besieged Aleppo, the senior United Nations humanitarian official pleaded with the Security Council today to take the minimum action necessary to finally allow wide-spread humanitarian access and end the slaughter in Syria.
Despite the vital role of women in preventing conflict and helping to forge peace, they were far too often prevented from participating fully in peacemaking processes to the detriment of society as a whole, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council today, as it began a day-long open debate on the subject.
Citing outbreaks of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, Israeli settlement activity, Palestinian political turmoil and militant activity, along with continued suffering in Gaza, speakers in a day-long debate at the Security Council warned that, regardless of other conflict in the region, the situation must not be ignored.
The threat posed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) might become a growing challenge to international peace and security as the military operations against the group continued to make progress, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs told the Security Council today.
The Security Council this morning renewed the mandate of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) without major changes in its configuration or objectives for six months, until 15 April 2017.
Briefing the Security Council on the situation in Haiti, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in that country said the category-four Hurricane Matthew had made landfall in the nation on 4 October, causing death, wide-spread damage, flooding and displacement.
The top United Nations official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, warning of what he called an “extremely fragile” political situation in that country, this morning called on the Security Council to urge the parties to return to dialogue, guarantee the right to peaceful opposition and to end impunity for violence, encouraging regional organizations to engage more closely with the situation.
Reporting on what he called significant progress in the Central African Republic in emerging from civil strife, the United Nations top peacekeeping official this morning stressed that the international community must stand firmly by the Government to overcome “spoilers” and other serious challenges that remained.
Two draft texts — one from France and Spain, and the other from the Russian Federation — addressing the conflict in Syria failed to be adopted by the Security Council today amid heated debate on content and urgent calls for humanitarian intervention for the besieged city of Aleppo.
