Fresh from a constitutional referendum, the Central African Republic was now entering the final and most sensitive phase of its electoral process, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations told the Security Council today, as he called for “uncompromising” rejection of any attempt to obstruct the country’s return to constitutional order.
Participants in the Libyan political dialogue had decided to announce publicly that the Libyan Political Agreement would be signed on 16 December, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in that country told the Security Council today.
Despite a reduction in clashes following the recent ceasefire agreement, the situation in eastern Ukraine remained “tense and volatile”, characterized by widespread human rights violations and a deteriorating humanitarian situation, senior United Nations officials told the Security Council today, in the first meeting to be held on the matter in six months.
The institutional nature and severity of gross human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea posed a threat to international peace and security, the High Commissioner for Human Rights told the Security Council today, following a rare procedural vote to approve the meeting’s provisional agenda.
Recognizing the threat to stability and development posed by the rise of radicalization among young people, the Security Council today urged Member States to consider ways to give youth a greater voice in decision-making at the local, national, regional and international levels.
With the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda set to formally close at the end of December, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia striving to complete its work by the end of 2017, the Presidents and Prosecutors of both bodies, as well as the President of the International Residual Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals briefed the Security Council today on their proceedings.
Noting the progress made towards implementation of the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel (UNISS), the Security Council today encouraged further progress, including through support for the Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel — Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger) in its efforts to address the security and political challenges to the region’s stability and development.
Central Africa’s security and humanitarian crisis triggered by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) should not be underestimated, senior United Nations and African Union officials in the region told the Security Council today, urging all forces involved in combating the armed group to sustain their momentum and coordinate more closely in order to eliminate its influence.
International partners must work collectively to increase buy-in by parties to the recent peace agreement in South Sudan, the head of United Nations peacekeeping told the Security Council today, stressing the need to support activities to put an end to the “senseless conflict” in that country.
The Security Council today expressed its intention to continue addressing the protection of civilians, both in country-specific considerations and as a thematic agenda item, outraged that they accounted for the vast majority of casualties in conflict situations, suffering forced displacement and destruction of property, among other impacts.
