While reiterating grave concern about the unprecedented extent of the Ebola outbreak in Africa, the Security Council today noted the international community’s “considerable” efforts to scale up its coordinated response, which had led to important progress on the ground.
The Security Council this morning resolved to make policing an integral part of the mandates of United Nations peacekeeping operations and special political missions, where appropriate, in its first-ever stand-alone resolution on the topic.
With thousands of foreign terrorist fighters traveling to conflict countries, and groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant/Sham (ISIL/ISIS) garnering hefty revenues from new illegal sources, the Security Council today urged States, the United Nations and other partners to target the root causes of terrorism as they redoubled efforts to eradicate that scourge in all its forms and manifestations.
Praising Guinea-Bissau for having restored constitutional order, making its public institutions more legitimate and forming an inclusive Government, top United Nations officials and other partners briefing the Security Council today also cautioned that the West African nation had reached a critical stage in its path towards stability and required sustained international support.
The United Nations top official for Iraq today urged continuance of, and support to, the new unity Government’s efforts to push forward reconciliation and security efforts that he said were beginning to succeed in countering the brutal onslaught of terrorist forces.
The Security Council, meeting independently from but concurrently with the General Assembly, today elected the final judge for the International Court of Justice. The vacancy had to be filled in February 2015, when the terms of five members would expire.
A spike in violence in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel showed once more that Palestinians and Israelis must make hard the compromises needed for a sustainable peace, a top political affairs official told the Security Council this morning.
Hostilities in eastern Ukraine had reignited, and for the past several days, artillery fire was exchanged between the Government and separatists amid reports from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe of large convoys of heavy weapons and troops flowing into rebel-held areas, the Security Council heard today in step with the fast-breaking developments.
Even as the international community scaled up its response to the Ebola crisis in Liberia, it might also need to consider how best to support the rebuilding of the West African nation in the wake of that epic health emergency, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations told the Security Council today, stressing that the opportunity must be seized to spur positive transformation.
Expressing continued grave concern over piracy off the coast of Somalia despite a sharp decline in attacks, the Security Council today renewed for another year authorizations, first agreed in 2008, for international action to fight the crime in cooperation with Government authorities.
