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World: Growing Global Threats Compel Security Council in 2014 to Deploy or Reconfigure Peace Missions, Bolster Anti-Terrorism Effort, Scrutinize Working Methods

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Source: UN Security Council
Country: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Mali, occupied Palestinian territory, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine, Western Sahara, World, Yemen

SC/11376

2014 Round-up
Security Council
Round-up Release

Seized with a succession of new crises in Europe, the Middle East and across Africa, the Security Council in 2014 tackled an expanding workload in a record number of meetings while seeking to defeat terrorism, prevent conflicts, protect civilians, and improve the effectiveness of sanctions and other tools to quell tensions and neutralize threats.

In total, the Council this year convened 241 public meetings, up sharply from the 172 held in 2013. There were eight high-level meetings, including notably a September summit of Heads of State and Government on terrorism, as the unparalleled brutal tactics of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant/Sham (ISIL/ISIS) and other groups swept across Iraq and Syria and regions in Africa.

In country- or region-specific situations, about 55 per cent of the Council's meetings related to Africa, compared to 2013, when 75 per cent concerned that continent. Europe was addressed in 28 per cent of meetings as political turmoil in Ukraine turned into full-blown conflict in the country’s east.

Africa certainly remained a major concern with the situation in Sudan and South Sudan the subject of most of those meetings, after the political dispute in South Sudan devolved into factional violence that sent up to 100,000 people fleeing to United Nations bases. The Ebola epidemic in West Africa was deemed a new threat to international peace and security as it grew exponentially in three countries emerging from conflict; a resolution countering isolation of those countries and mobilizing aid had the most sponsors in the Council’s history.

In addition, with last year’s political crisis in the Central African Republic spiralling into inter-community violence, the Council approved the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission there, known as MINUSCA. Council members visited Mali as the peacekeeping operation there suffered numerous attacks in the restive north. The body also addressed a new round of deep instability in Libya.

In the Middle East, the Council ramped up its meetings on the Palestinian question as hope for negotiations faded and a war erupted between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, leaving thousands dead. With hundreds of thousands killed and little political progress in Syria, the humanitarian situation there was deemed a separate threat to international peace, resulting in actions on humanitarian access. The situation in Yemen was also newly deemed a threat with international import amid fresh assaults on the democratic transition, against which the Council targeted a new sanctions regime.

Elsewhere, the situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea became its own agenda item, apart from considerations of its item on non-proliferation, after a horrifying human rights report was sent to the Council by the General Assembly, which urged referral to the International Criminal Court. On Afghanistan, the Council shepherded the end of the transition to national control of the security sector, as insurgent attacks again took a significant toll.

Addressing these situations and dozens of others, the Council adopted 63 resolutions and issued 28 presidential statements. Once again it strove for consensus, with only three texts adopted through a vote, although a year-end draft requiring a lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within three years failed to obtain the needed majority.

Two other texts — one that would have termed invalid a referendum in Crimea that preceded its joining the Russian Federation and one on referring gross human rights violations in Syria to the International Criminal Court — were vetoed by the Russian Federation, along with China in the latter case, again showing the divisions that constrained action on some of the most difficult situations.

In the interest of improving effectiveness and transparency in those and all other areas, October’s day-long debate on working methods drew 55 speakers with much attention given to the current use of sanctions and referrals to the International Criminal Court. The first focused assessment of sanctions since 2006 was also conducted.

More emphasis on conflict prevention was urged at all opportunities for Council self-evaluation; signs of potential crises were increasingly discussed under the item “Other issues”. Prevention was also a central focus of a visiting mission to Europe on the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, after which Council members visited South Sudan, where the mandate of the peacekeeping mission was adjusted to better protect civilians seeking refuge at United Nations bases.

The Council’s ability to adapt to changing challenges was also a focus in open thematic meetings on improving the deployment of police in United Nations peacekeeping operations, as well as on protecting and empowering women, children and other civilians in the context of massive displacement and the ever more brutal face of terrorism.

In addition to its meetings on terrorism, the Council issued 138 press statements, at least 90 of which condemned particular terrorist acts around the world. It continued to monitor compliance with counter-terrorism resolutions through its subsidiary bodies, calling special attention to efforts to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists on the tenth anniversary of resolution 1540 (2004).

Aside from MINUSCA, the Council authorized no new peacekeeping operations in 2014. It did, however, terminate the mandates in four Special Political Missions: the peacebuilding offices in the Central African Republic (BINUCA), Burundi (BNUB), and Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL) and the Joint Mission with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which completed its work of destroying declared materials in Syria.

Public monthly wrap-ups of the Council’s work were held, for the first time since 2005, under Rwanda’s presidency. With the aim of analysing the month’s activities, the presidencies of the United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia and Chad followed suit.

In its October elections this year, the General Assembly choose Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela to serve two-year terms as non-permanent Council members, starting on 1 January 2015. They replaced Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, Republic of Korea and Rwanda, which concluded their terms on 31 December 2014. Chad, Chile, Jordan, Lithuania and Nigeria will complete their terms at the end of 2015. China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United States are permanent Council members.


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