The Security Council today created a system to impose sanctions on those blocking peace in South Sudan, with some members cautioning that such moves could derail Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) negotiations aimed at securing a deal by 5 March, and others expressing hope they would pressure rival leaders into ending the bloodshed that had plunged the United Nations’ newest country into civil war for more than a year.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened the first part of its resumed sixty-ninth session today with a review of its 2015 work programme and organization of work, the programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015 on programme criticality of safety and security, and of the role of the Joint Inspection Unit.
There had been a significant reduction of hostilities in Ukraine, another release of detainees, and the beginning of the withdrawal of heavy equipment from the line of separation in accordance with the Minsk accords, senior officials of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) told the Security Council today, cautioning, however, that those developments were only the beginning of a process.
Expanding the United Nations’ partnerships — with Governments, business, the philanthropic community, civil society and academia — would be central to effectively implement the new development agenda, Martin Sajdik, President of the Economic and Social Council, told the 54-member body today, as delegates evaluated how to harness their potential, including by setting up voluntary review mechanisms to assess results.
The Security Council today heard strong and sustained pleas to demonstrate leadership to end the barbaric and brutal warfare in Syria, as two senior United Nations officials briefed the 15-member body on the wider consequences of a conflict that entered its fifth year.
The Security Council this afternoon extended until 15 July 2015 the mandate of the United Nations Interim Security Force for the disputed Abyei area bordering Sudan and South Sudan.
Covering diverse ground, delegates in the General Assembly today adopted two consensus resolutions by which they first addressed global geospacial information management, and then commemorated the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, a historic event that had brought “untold sorrow” to humanity.
Concluding its annual session today, the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on Strengthening the Role of the Organization adopted its 2015 draft report and forwarded its recommendations to the General Assembly.
A truly transformative post-2015 agenda demanded adaptation and change from the United Nations development system across the board, the President of the Economic and Social Council said today, as debate concluded on improving the Organization’s internal processes and external interventions designed to help countries strengthen national institutions and improve peoples’ well-being.
While “sprinting towards the last mile” in achieving targets set out under the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations must also prepare for the “marathon” challenge of improving life for the most vulnerable in the post-2015 era, said the heads of the Organization’s Funds and Programmes in a dialogue with the Economic and Social Council today.
