The Security Council today decided to maintain the exemption of humanitarian aid providers from asset freeze measures imposed by the Da’esh and Al-Qaida sanctions regime — a decision that provides those personnel and entities with greater operational clarity and predictability, while maintaining systematic monitoring measures to prevent the carveout from being exploited by terrorist organizations.
The General Assembly today adopted several resolutions on a variety of topics, including one stressing the need to return cultural property to countries of origin, with Member States emphasizing the importance of adhering to regulations safeguarding such artefacts, amid an unprecedented increase in trafficking and attacks against them during armed conflict.
With its recent national census and long-overdue parliamentary elections in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq is secure and stable despite the obstacles it faces, the senior United Nations official in the country told the Security Council today as speakers expressed concern over proposed changes to the country’s Personal Status Law and its impact on women and children.
Syria’s reported destruction or conversion of large quantities of chemical warfare agents and munitions prior to its accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention still cannot be fully verified, the United Nations’ disarmament chief told the Security Council today, noting that the unresolved 19 issues in the country’s declaration with respect to the elimination of its chemical weapons programme remain a serious concern.
While supporting the Secretariat’s request for $62.3 million to keep the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals running smoothly in 2025, some delegates at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today voiced concerns with the uneven impact upcoming cutbacks would have on the Mechanism’s operations in Arusha.
Acting today on the recommendations of its Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) and Sixth Committee (Legal), the General Assembly today adopted a total of 65 texts, including 49 resolutions and 16 decisions addressing a wide range of international concerns tackling, among others, the effects of atomic radiation and support for the Palestinian refugee agency, as well as the codification of two international binding treaties on crimes against humanity and the protection of persons in disasters.
As the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine advances past the thousandth-day mark and ratchets up in intensity, it is “upending the lives of children”, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, at a meeting in which speakers debated the findings of a recent investigation suggesting that Moscow has a programme facilitating the systematic transfer, adoption and naturalization of Ukrainian children.
Highlighting the dire humanitarian condition in the Gaza Strip, delegates underscored the urgent need to put an end to the conflict and for measures to contain the civilian population’s suffering, as the General Assembly today resumed its tenth emergency special session on illegal Israeli actions in Occupied Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. (For background, see Press Release GA/12625.)
A vast swathe of Syrian territory — containing approximately 7 million people — has come under the control of non-State actors, including the terrorist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and armed opposition groups, the Organization’s senior official for that country told the Security Council today, as he warned that more bloodshed could be on its way.
Amid an era of conflict and violence, the Security Council and the international community at large must include women and girl peacebuilders in discussions at the highest levels, engage with them at the local levels and provide adequate financial support to help ensure the success of their efforts, delegates heard today during the 15-member organ’s briefing on intergenerational leadership on women, peace and security.
