Security Council

The Security Council today extended until 15 May 2016 the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping operation for the disputed Abyei area bordering Sudan and South Sudan.

Fresh from a constitutional referendum, the Central African Republic was now entering the final and most sensitive phase of its electoral process, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations told the Security Council today, as he called for “uncompromising” rejection of any attempt to obstruct the country’s return to constitutional order.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Samantha Power (United States):

On 3 December 2015, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2127 (2013) and the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict held joint consultations featuring a briefing by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, concerning the impact of the conflict on children in the Central African Republic.

Participants in the Libyan political dialogue had decided to announce publicly that the Libyan Political Agreement would be signed on 16 December, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in that country told the Security Council today.

Despite a reduction in clashes following the recent ceasefire agreement, the situation in eastern Ukraine remained “tense and volatile”, characterized by widespread human rights violations and a deteriorating humanitarian situation, senior United Nations officials told the Security Council today, in the first meeting to be held on the matter in six months.

On 10 December 2015, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) enacted the amendments specified with underline and strikethrough in the entries below on its Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2161 (2014) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

The institutional nature and severity of gross human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea posed a threat to international peace and security, the High Commissioner for Human Rights told the Security Council today, following a rare procedural vote to approve the meeting’s provisional agenda.

On 10 December 2015, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) concerning Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities removed the name below from the Al-Qaida Sanctions List.

With the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda set to formally close at the end of December, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia striving to complete its work by the end of 2017, the Presidents and Prosecutors of both bodies, as well as the President of the International Residual Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals briefed the Security Council today on their proceedings.