The Chair of the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1540 (2004), which supports States in preventing non-State actors — including terrorists — from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction, provided a briefing to the Security Council during a videoconference meeting today, describing the successful completion of the body’s ongoing comprehensive review process as its top priority.
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Linda Thomas-Greenfield (United States):
There are not only challenges, but also opportunities in the run-up to the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s nationwide elections in 2023, the Secretary‑General’s new Special Representative in that country said today, as she urged the Security Council and the international community to act as one to help restore peace and stability there and to overcome the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
A full decade into the conflict which plunged Syria into a spiral of grotesque violence, hunger and economic decay, the Security Council must stand firm in defence of the country’s last authorized border crossing, through which aid to millions of civilians flows each month, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator told members during a high-level videoconference meeting today.
The Security Council, acting through its temporary written silence procedure today, extended until 30 April 2022 the mandate of the panel of experts assisting the committee which oversees its sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The first months of 2021 have seen the peace process in Sudan reach a “significant new stage”, with notable reductions in clashes between Government forces and rebel factions in Darfur, the head of that country’s sanctions committee told the Security Council in a videoconference meeting today.
The year 2021 began with “a degree of guarded optimism” for progress towards the settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the United Nations mediator for the Middle East peace told the Security Council today, citing renewed international efforts to broker direct peace negotiations and cooperation between the two sides, including in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent progress towards peace and democracy in Libya has demonstrated that once seemingly insurmountable divisions can be overcome with determined political will, the United Nations top official for that country told the Security Council today, citing the successful launch of the Government of National Unity.
The Security Council expressed its deep concern today at the political and multiple other protracted crises in Haiti, urging stakeholders to set aside their differences and calling upon them to prepare for free, fair, transparent and credible presidential elections later in 2021.
Six months into Afghanistan’s latest round of peace talks, progress remains slow and demands strong support from the global community, the senior United Nations official in the country told the Security Council today, while also sounding alarm about soaring rates of violence that continue to hamper humanitarian efforts and erode public confidence more broadly.
