Security Council: Press Release

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council debate on conflict and food security, held today:

The world is facing multiple conflict-driven famines, aggravated by climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, and without immediate action, millions of people — from the Sahel to Afghanistan — could well find themselves on the brink of extreme hunger and death this year, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, warned the Security Council today.

While the crisis in Ukraine remains Europe’s most serious security challenge, the COVID-19 pandemic — which was declared as such a year ago this month — has occasioned worrying setbacks for democracy and human rights in the region which cannot go ignored, the Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said today, during a videoconference meeting of the Security Council.

The Security Council today reiterated its deep concern about developments in Myanmar, following the state of emergency imposed by the military on 1 February and arbitrary detention of members of the Government, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint.

While Sudan is making significant advances in its political transition, the challenges ahead on its road to democracy are “staggering”, the new Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the country stressed in his first briefing to Security Council today, amid calls for the new United Nations Mission there to meaningfully engage the diverse expertise of civil society, particularly outside of Khartoum.

On 5 March 2021, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005) concerning the Sudan approved the removal of the following entry from its List of individuals and entities:

Nearly eight years after the Security Council first mandated the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons programme, the senior United Nations disarmament official today described only limited progress towards declaring that dossier closed, as delegates continued to voice divergent views about the neutrality of the global non-proliferation architecture itself.

The transformation of South Sudan from conflict to recovery is under way, the senior United Nations official in the country told the Security Council today, as he urged the Transitional Government to build on hard-won gains made during its first year in office and accelerate implementation of the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement — or otherwise risk a return to widespread violence.

On 24 February 2021, the midterm report of the Panel of Experts on Mali, submitted in accordance with paragraph 4 of resolution 2541 (2020), was made available in all official languages on the 2374 Committee’s webpage.

Upcoming elections, currently being organized by both Israelis and Palestinians and slated to be held in 2021, will help to clear a crucial path towards restoring a legitimate political horizon in the Middle East, the senior United Nations official responsible for the peace process told the Security Council during a videoconference meeting today.