‘Humankind no longer pins its hopes on the UN,’ Zelenskyy tells Security Council

‘Humankind no longer pins its hopes on the UN,’ Zelenskyy tells Security Council

“Regardless of who you are, the current UN system still makes you less influential than the veto power possessed by a few and misused by one: Russia. That is to the detriment of all other UN Members,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.  Viable reform process  World leaders and Foreign Ministers attending the annual debate…

Read More
Security Council hears of ‘unimaginable suffering’ of Ukrainian people, 18 months into war

Security Council hears of ‘unimaginable suffering’ of Ukrainian people, 18 months into war

Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, was briefing a meeting of the Security Council, which also coincided with the 32nd anniversary of Ukraine’s independence. “I would like to congratulate the Ukrainian people today and take this occasion to stress, once again, that the UN’s commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity…

Read More
Armenia-Azerbaijan: Crucial to have ‘unimpeded passage’ of aid through Lachin Corridor, Security Council hears

Armenia-Azerbaijan: Crucial to have ‘unimpeded passage’ of aid through Lachin Corridor, Security Council hears

Delivering a briefing on the latest situation there, the Director of Operations and Advocacy for humanitarian affairs coordination office, OCHA, made clear that the UN was unable to independently verify information on the movement of people and goods along the corridor “or on the well-being of civilians in the areas where Russian peacekeepers have been…

Read More
Niger: Security Council strongly condemns ‘efforts to unconstitutionally change’ Government

Niger: Security Council strongly condemns ‘efforts to unconstitutionally change’ Government

The members of the Security Council strongly condemned the efforts to unconstitutionally change the legitimate government of the Republic of Niger on 26 July 2023.  Earlier this week, the demand to release the President of Niger was voiced by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Late on Wednesday, a group of Nigerien military officers made a television…

Read More
New Economic and Social Council leadership takes the helm

New Economic and Social Council leadership takes the helm

The 54-member body, which is one of the six main pillars of the UN system, elected Paula Narváez Ojeda of Chile to the top seat. It also elected as Vice-Presidents, Akan Rakhmetullin (Kazakhstan), Ivan Šimonović (Croatia) and Robert Rae (Canada), representing the Asia-Pacific, Eastern European, and Western European and other regional groups, respectively.   The…

Read More
Ukraine: ‘Latest attacks signal a calamitous turn’, Security Council hears

Ukraine: ‘Latest attacks signal a calamitous turn’, Security Council hears

The Council meeting was convened following the missile strikes on Sunday which damaged the centuries-old Transfiguration Cathedral, the first and foremost Orthodox church in the historic city. Other landmarks in the city centre, a protected World Heritage Site, were also damaged in the attack, which killed one person and injured several others. Culture under fire…

Read More
Security Council urged to address ‘most silenced and least condemned crime’

Security Council urged to address ‘most silenced and least condemned crime’

“Every new wave of warfare brings with it a rising tide of human tragedy, including new waves of war’s oldest, most silenced and least condemned crime,” she said. The Council meeting to examine implementation of its resolutions on conflict-related sexual violence was convened by the United Kingdom, which holds the rotating presidency this month. Meetings survivors in…

Read More
Status quo on Korean Peninsula ‘alarming and unsustainable’, Security Council hears

Status quo on Korean Peninsula ‘alarming and unsustainable’, Security Council hears

Khaled Khiari was briefing the Council just a day after DPRK conducted the second launch of its Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a system which he said can now “reach most points on Earth.” It represented “potentially” Pyongyang’s longest ever ballistic missile flight, lasting around 74 minutes and travelling over 1,000 kilometres before crashing into…

Read More