The second meeting of the week on the situation in Venezuela, took place in the UN Security Council on Thursday, during which competing resolutions produced by the United States and by Russia were presented. Neither text was adopted as the US draft was vetoed and the Russian draft failing to secure enough votes in favor.
With the eighth anniversary of Syria’s brutal civil conflict looming, the new United Nations Special Envoy to Syria gave his first briefing to the Security Council on the complex political road map towards ending the war, with a pledge to work “impartially and diligently”.
Although a landmark convention banning Anti-Personnel Mines has saved “countless lives” and limbs over the past 20 years, “accelerated efforts” are needed to ensure that they are removed from the face of the earth forever, the UN chief said on Thursday.
Ghanaian men and women have served as United Nations peacekeepers since the early 1970s, participating in operations that stretched from the Sinai to the African continent. The West African Nations is now among the top 10 contributors to UN peacekeeping, with nearly 3,000 personnel serving on eight missions.
An independent UN report into last year’s protests along Gaza’s border fence involving Israeli security forces, that resulted in the shooting deaths of more than 180 Palestinians, concluded on Thursday that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel violated international humanitarian law.
Last June, a historic agreement settled a 27-year-long name dispute between two countries, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece. One man, Matthew Nimetz, patiently led the negotiations on behalf of the United Nations for over two decades and he told UN News, in an exclusive interview, that his faith in a positive outcome never faltered.
Arms control, the illegal exploitation of natural resources, and the United Nations’ role in “silencing the guns in Africa” were the focus of a Security Council’s debate on Wednesday, aimed at conflict prevention across the continent.
The “protracted crisis” in Venezuela has led to an “alarming escalation of tensions”, Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN’s political and peacebuilding chief, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
“Staggering levels” of humanitarian need persist throughout Syria, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told Security Council members on Tuesday.
Donors have pledged $2.6 billion to provide urgently needed support to millions of Yemeni civilians facing an “overwhelming humanitarian calamity” after nearly four years of brutal war, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday.
