The grim revelation emerged during a high-level discussion at the UN in Geneva on the human rights situation in DRC. The Council – the UN’s foremost human rights forum – also heard updates on allegations of ongoing abuses in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Surging violence Despite best...
The Council – the UN’s foremost human rights forum – also heard updates on allegations of ongoing abuses in Belarus, North Korea and Myanmar. According to the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, enforced disappearances of civilians committed by Russian authorities have been “widespread and systematic” and likely amount to crimes against humanity....
The UN Security Council met in New York on Tuesday on the Middle East crisis, exactly two months since the start of the fragile Gaza ceasefire and hostages deal came into effect. That’s been shattered by deadly Israeli airstrikes overnight following a two-week aid blockade which has strained critical supplies....
Yasmen Almashan, a founding member of the Caesar Families Association, lost five of her six brothers between 2012 and 2014 during the early years of the Syrian civil war. Today, Ms. Almashan advocates for the truth about what happened to Syria’s more than 130,000 missing persons. This quest would be...
The discussion focused on the 20th biannual report of the Secretary-General on the threat posed by Da’esh to international peace and security. “Terrorism remains a significant and evolving threat to global peace and security, one that no State can confront in isolation,” said Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Voronkov, Head of the UN...
Signed in 2018 to end years of conflict, the Revitalized Peace Agreement, initially set a three-year timeline for elections and the formation of a democratic government. The transition has been extended four times, with key political, security, and governance benchmarks remaining unfulfilled. Under the latest extension, announced by the authorities...
Briefing ambassadors in New York on Tuesday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini warned that the laws passed in October last year in the Knesset jeopardize the lives of millions of Palestinians and risks undermining the fragile ceasefire in Gaza. They require that UNRWA cease its activities in the territory of the...
As fighting intensifies between the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group and Congolese forces, UN chief of Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix underscored the critical state of the battle for eastern DRC’s regional capital Goma, describing the crisis as “volatile and dangerous”....
Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for peacebuilding and political affairs, briefed ambassadors two days after the DPRK, commonly known as North Korea, fired off what it described as a new type of intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile (IRBM) loaded with a hypersonic glide vehicle. He cited an official statement from Pyongyang which...
Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General in the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), presented the latest quarterly report on the implementation of Council resolution 2334 (2016). It calls for Israel to immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the OPT, including East Jerusalem, and for immediate steps to...
Bintou Keita, who also heads the UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC, known as MONUSCO, reported on the instability in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, particularly operations by four armed groups: ADF, M23, CODECO and Zaïre. She applauded efforts to quell the violence there and in the wider region, highlighting...
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreed in 2015 lays out the rules for monitoring Iran’s domestic nuclear programme and paved the way for US sanctions to be lifted. It was agreed by Iran, the five permanent members of the Council (China, France, Russia the United Kingdom and the...