Delegates in the General Assembly today pressed the Security Council to deliver an annual report that moves beyond a simple compilation of activities and scrutinizes its urgent and critical work to uphold global peace and security, as they reviewed the Council’s 2021 activities after electing five non-permanent members to the 15-member body.
After China and the Russian Federation vetoed a draft resolution in the Security Council on 26 May aimed at tightening the sanctions regime against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the General Assembly today held a debate on the issue, with speakers expressing diverging views on that country’s actions related to nuclear non-proliferation and security in the Korean Peninsula.
Significant investigative progress in the collection of evidence has been made into the financing, use of chemical weapons and crimes committed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as Da’esh, the head of the United Nations team investigating that group’s crimes told the Security Council today, as speakers welcomed the Team’s use of technology to facilitate prosecution and stressed the need to address the group’s continuing proliferation across other regions.
Marking both democratic strides and worsening security conditions, the situation in the Central African region remains something of a mixed picture, senior officials told the Security Council today, voicing particular concern over terrorist attacks, population displacement and the resurgence of old armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Allegations of sexual violence by Russian troops in Ukraine are mounting as the conflict passes its 100-day mark, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, voicing regret over a stark discrepancy between that painful reality and the global community’s ambition to end the use of rape as a tactic of war.
The Security Council today welcomed the recent positive political developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region and the convening of the second Regional Heads of State Conclave on the Democratic Republic of Congo in Nairobi, Kenya, on 21 April.
The Security Council decided today to extend the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) until 3 June 2023.
The Security Council decided today to renew measures designed to implement the arms embargo against Libya for another year, in particular those authorizing Member States — acting nationally or through regional organizations — to inspect vessels on the high seas off Libya’s coast believed to be in violation of the arms embargo imposed on that country.
Accountability for serious violations of international law is crucial to the effective function of the United Nations justice system — and the Security Council must uphold its special responsibility to that principle and ensure decisions, resolutions and Court orders are abided by — speakers told the 15-nation organ today in an open debate on the issue.
With a brutal history of violence now threatening to repeat itself in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, senior officials briefing the Security Council today urged members to lend their steadfast support to regional efforts aimed at curbing the resurgence of militia attacks in the country’s eastern provinces, while warning of dire humanitarian implications for the broader Great Lakes region.
