Voicing deep concern over the situation in Ukraine, the Chair-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) stressed the need for greater confidence- and security-building measures amid the conflict there.
An hour before it was due to go into effect, the Security Council today endorsed the cessation of hostilities agreement aimed at ending five years of bloodshed in Syria.
The most important elements of the Security Council’s work in February were still to come, speakers said during the 15-member organ’s monthly “wrap-up” meeting today.
The Security Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) for one year today, amid a political crisis in that country and ahead of the Council’s visit to West Africa in March.
Welcoming the nationwide ceasefire agreement due to take effect in Syria on Saturday, the United Nations humanitarian chief described the development today as a long-awaited, optimistic sign for millions suffering in the war-torn country.
The Security Council today extended for one year its sanctions on those threatening stability in Yemen, as well as the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the committee charged with overseeing those measures.
Member States and the United Nations must stop viewing peacebuilding solely as a post-conflict activity and focus more on coordinated programming and funding to prevent war and relapse into conflict, speakers in the Security Council said today.
A seminar for African parliamentarians on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1540 (2004) was held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on 22-23 February.
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Rafael Darío Ramírez Carreño (Venezuela):
On 23 February 2016, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) enacted the amendments specified with underline and strikethrough in the entries below on its ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 2 of Security Council resolution 2253 (2015) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.
