Stressing the need for a bilateral diplomatic solution, the top United Nations official for political affairs today called on Iraq and Turkey to exercise restraint and defuse tensions arising from the increased presence of Turkish forces in Iraq as part of the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) terrorist group.
In a sweeping move to suppress the financing of terrorism, the Security Council today expanded and strengthened its Al-Qaida sanctions framework to include a focus on Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) in an unprecedented meeting that heard finance ministers from around the world outline efforts to dismantle funding channels to a terrorist group now in control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Acting on the recommendation of its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), the General Assembly adopted 57 draft resolutions and seven draft decisions today, tackling a wide range of issues from the global refugee crisis to the rights of the child, as well as human rights defenders and country-specific human rights situations.
Outgoing members of the Security Council — Chad, Jordan, Lithuania, Chile and Nigeria — briefed the 15-member body today on their work during their two-year tenure as Chairs of various subsidiary bodies, sharing their highlights, concerns and recommendations.
The General Assembly today reaffirmed its common desire and commitment to the vision of the World Summit on the Information Society to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented information society, as the 193-member body concluded its two-day high-level meeting reviewing the summit outcomes.
JAKARTA, 16 December — After the two-day International Conference on the Question of Jerusalem concluded on 15 December, the United Nations Civil Society Forum on the Question of Palestine met this morning to hear from experts and engage in discussions on the theme of “Civil society action in support of justice in Palestine and ending the occupation”.
The Security Council today deplored all acts of trafficking in human beings by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh), the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Boko Haram and other terrorist groups, underscoring that certain acts associated with that practice in the context of armed conflict might constitute war crimes.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today approved a draft resolution calling for the prompt demolition of a temporary conference building on the United Nations main campus in New York.
It was sad that after the Secretary-General’s visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah two months ago, and despite a decline in the number of attacks over the past few weeks, the bloodshed between Israelis and Palestinians had not stopped, Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, told the Security Council today.
The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the Security Council today that she wished she could declare that victims of the protracted conflict in Darfur would soon see justice at last, and that those alleged to be responsible for Rome Statute crimes in that western region of Sudan would soon be held accountable before the Court.
