Security Council

Acting on the recommendation of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) for one year, deciding also to readjust its presence so it could help the West African nation restore constitutional order following the 2012 military coup and hold elections by the end of this year.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Kodjo Menan (Togo):

An already challenging situation in the Central African Republic had descended into a “state of anarchy and total disregard for international law”, as elements of the Séléka rebel group — which had seized power in a 24 March coup d’état — had turned their vengeance against an innocent population, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council today.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s political leaders faced an increasingly stark choice, the United Nations High Representative in that country told the Security Council today, stressing that they could either “fail together” by remaining mired in disagreements or “succeed together” by reaching healthy compromises and standing firm against those who sought to reopen wounds of the past.

The following press statement was issued today by Security Council President Kodjo Menan (Togo):

At its thirty-seventh meeting, the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict agreed to address the following message to the Lord’s Resistance Army through a public statement by its Chair on behalf of the Working Group and to request the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict to ensure that the message was communicated to LRA in the most effective manner:

The following press statement was issued today by Security Council President Kodjo Menan (Togo):

An “arc of instability” was stretching across Africa’s Sahara and Sahel region, and if left unchecked, it could transform the continent into a breeding ground for extremists and a launch pad for larger-scale terrorist attacks around the world, delegates in the Security Council stressed today during a high-level debate on combating that growing scourge across the region.

While concerted multilateral action was needed to root out barbarous terrorist attacks from Boston to Karachi, the United Nations counter-terrorism machinery was only as good as “the sum of its parts”, the Security Council was told this morning as it reviewed the work of its three anti-terrorism Committees.

The formidable social, economic and security challenges facing Guinea-Bissau following its May 2012 coup d’état were not insurmountable, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council today, stressing that they must be tackled through a two-phase process: a return to constitutional order through year-end elections and a post-electoral strengthening of State bodies through adequately financed reforms.