Meetings Coverage

A year after the adoption of resolution 2139 (2014), the situation in Syria had dramatically worsened, characterized by “breath-taking levels of savagery”, a top United Nations official told the Security Council today.

The rich contributions of women enslaved during the era of the transatlantic slave trade — who suffered dual forms of oppression due to their race and gender — were too often forgotten, said high-level speakers as they addressed the General Assembly’s annual event commemorating the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Being a child soldier was like being ripped from childhood and thrown into an adult world, the Security Council heard today from Junior Nzita Nsuami, who described his forcible recruitment at age 12 into a decade of war and violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the 15-member body held an open debate on children and armed conflict.

Underscoring the seriousness and urgency of the situation in South Sudan, the Security Council today called on all parties to armed conflict to issue clear orders prohibiting all violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses without further delay.

As negotiations between the permanent five members of the Security Council plus Germany, known as the P5+1, and Iran continued, measures imposed in Security Council resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and 1929 (2010) were in full effect, the Chair of the Iran Sanctions Committee told the 15-member body today, recalling that States were obliged to implement them.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today rejected a draft decision that would have had the Secretary-General withdraw his bulletin laying out the United Nations current rules for the personal status of staff members used to determine their benefits and entitlements.

Reaffirming its strong commitment to the unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Yemen, the Security Council today, in an emergency meeting, condemned the ongoing unilateral actions taken by the Houthis that were undermining the political transition process and jeopardizing the country’s security and stability.

Almost 50 years after the proclamation of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, too many individuals, communities and societies continued to suffer from the injustices and stigma brought by racism, the General Assembly heard today during a special meeting to commemorate the day.

The Commission on the Status of Women had a revitalized role to play in ensuring the 2030 “expiry date” for gender inequality across the world, as laid out in the Political Declaration adopted last week, said the United Nations top gender official at the closing of its fifty-ninth session today.

After 15 years of international efforts, the Democratic Republic of the Congo had emerged from civil war into a unified country, with a clear, shared and celebrated identity, and free of much of the terror of armed groups, the United Nations most senior official in that country told the Security Council today in a message laced with caution that the overall security situation was not still stable, let alone irreversible.