Security Council

Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, and this year’s theme is “Combating Elder Abuse”.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every year, one in six people aged 60 and older experience some form of abuse.

With conflicts and military takeovers wiping out gains on women's rights, and with the safety and prospects of women and girls on the ground and in political and economic spheres being driven backwards, regional organizations have an important role to play in promoting women's participation in peace and other decision-making processes, almost 60 speakers told the Security Council today in a ministerial-level open debate on women, peace and security.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council open debate on women, peace and security, in New York today:

With the truce in Yemen extended for another two months — markedly improving the humanitarian situation and significantly reducing civilian casualties — efforts towards a lasting peace must be further consolidated, the Special Envoy for that country told the Security Council today, as members welcomed this positive development while also highlighting the ongoing challenges faced by the Yemeni people as a result of the seven-year-old conflict.

Despite scepticism about the efficacy of international criminal justice, the work of ad hoc tribunals truly matters and justice will ultimately prevail, the chief judge of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) told the Security Council today.

Amid a delayed return to civilian rule, the deteriorating security and the dire humanitarian and human rights situation in Mali, the mandate of the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in the African country should be extended for another year, speakers told the Security Council today.

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.