The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 31 October 2018, calling for a “realistic, practicable and enduring” political solution to end the decades‑old conflict.
On 26 April 2018, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2127 (2013) concerning the Central African Republic enacted the amendments specified with underline and strikethrough in the entry below on its Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the asset freeze and travel ban set out in paragraphs 9 and 16 of Security Council resolution 2399 (2018), adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.
The Security Council, acting in parallel with the General Assembly today, took note of a raft of proposals by Secretary‑General António Guterres on ways to accelerate the United Nations “Peacebuilding and sustaining peace” agenda, as well as the Assembly’s decision to track progress towards its implementation. (For more information, please see Press Release GA/12014.)
Amid escalating tensions, outside interference and growing risks of potentially explosive miscalculations, from Gaza to Syria to Yemen, everyone in the region must “step away from the brink”, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council today.
Amid the highest levels of violence against civilians since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, concrete action must be taken to turn pledges of aid into progress on the ground, the Security Council heard today.
With the adoption of landmark resolutions on the concepts of peacebuilding and sustaining peace imminent, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged Member States to strengthen their focus on conflict prevention, address its root causes and embark on a “quantum leap” in funding those critical activities, in a briefing to the Security Council this afternoon.
The Security Council extended until 15 October 2018 a modification to the mandate of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) as laid out in two resolutions from 2011 and 2014, agreeing that it would be the final such extension until the parties took several measurable steps related to the contested border area.
On 23 April 2018, the Committee enacted the amendments specified with underline in the entry below on its list of individuals subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and targeted arms embargo, set out in paragraphs 11 and 15 of Security Council resolution 2140 (2014), as extended by paragraph 2 of resolution 2402 (2018), and in paragraph 14 of resolution 2216 (2015), adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.
Contrary to common perception, young people were not a nagging problem, but rather, powerful agents for resolving and preventing conflict throughout the world, the Security Council heard today during an open debate on youth, peace and security that featured the first‑ever United Nations report on the topic.
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Gustavo Meza-Cuadra (Peru):
