Security Council: Meetings Coverage

The Security Council decided today to extend the mandate of the United Nations team tasked with investigating crimes committed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh), as well as the Special Adviser leading it.

The political process and the prevention of an economic collapse in Syria will not advance meaningfully until violence is curtailed and ultimately ends, the Deputy Special Envoy for that country told the Security Council today, detailing United Nations efforts to address the Syrian peoples’ immediate concerns for safety and security, livelihoods and humanitarian assistance.

Nearly a year after the October 2021 military takeover in Sudan, the United Nations top official in that country updated Security Council members today on the African nation’s distressing political stalemate amid a worsening humanitarian and socioeconomic crisis.

The sanctions regime on Sudan was established solely to help bring peace to Darfur and not to punish the country, the head of the 1591 Sanctions Committee emphasized to the Security Council as he presented his quarterly update today.

A large-scale influx of weapons to conflict-affected zones raises many concerns, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu told the Security Council today, as delegates convened for the third time in three days to discuss the situation in Ukraine, with many questioning the reasoning for the debate and what it could achieve for the millions of civilians suffering under near constant shelling.

The United Nations top official in Somalia updated Security Council members today on the promising political climate emerging in the African nation while warning of the dire drought-induced humanitarian situation and the ongoing security threats posed by al-Shabaab.

Disturbing reports of Ukrainian civilians subjected to forced displacement, deportation and “filtration” camps must be independently investigated, senior United Nations officials told the Security Council today, as speakers stressed that international humanitarian law — guaranteeing protection for such individuals — still holds in times of war.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called today for the creation of a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, warning the Security Council of a potential catastrophe should the facility sustain further physical assault amid reports of shelling.

The international community must do everything possible to preserve the space for United Nations peacekeeping operations — a visible expression on the ground of an operating multilateral system, the United Nations senior peace operations official told the Security Council today.

Welcoming progress in Africa to prevent conflict, make and keep peace and foster development, the Security Council today called for intensified efforts, support and a more coordinated approach among all relevant partners — including the continent’s countries, the African Union and subregional organizations — particularly through enhanced efforts to improve capacity-building in addressing those challenges.