United Nations Security Council

Underlining the need for more transparency in workings of the UN Security Council's subsidiary bodies, India said details about rejecting or putting on hold requests to blacklist terror entities are not made public and are the exclusive preserve of a select few, calling it a disguised veto. India's Permanent Representative at the UN Ambassador P. Harish spoke at the Inter-Governmental Negotiations Plenary Cluster Debate on Working Methods here Thursday and underscored the need for urgent reform of the 15-nation Security Council and its working methods - from more transparency in the working of the subsidiary bodies to implementation of peacekeeping mandates. The demand in this Chamber for reforms is loud and clear. This call gains greater significance at a time when the world is expressing apprehensions at the ability of the United Nations to deliver, to meaningfully intervene on issues of key importance to humanity in different parts of the globe, particularly in the realm of peace

India told a Security Council meeting chaired by China that countries opposing expansion in the UN body's permanent membership are status quoists with a narrow focus and non-progressive approach, asserting that this can no longer be accepted. The Global South cannot continue to be short-changed. India and major players in other parts of the world deserve their due representation in the structures of the United Nations. As regards Security Council, this translates to permanent category membership," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish said. Addressing the open debate in the Security Council on Practicing Multilateralism, Reforming and Improving Global Governance' held under China's Presidency of the 15-nation UN body, Harish further said that three fundamental principles are essential to the success of UNSC reforms. These he described to be increase in membership of both permanent and non-permanent categories; commencement of text based ...

The UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee has agreed on guiding principles for preventing and detecting the use of new and emerging financial technologies for terrorist purposes, taking forward commitments made by the UN body on combatting terrorism during India's tenure in the Council. Earlier this month, the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), under the chairship of Algeria, agreed upon the Algeria Guiding Principles'. Sources said this comes on the back of the Abu Dhabi Guiding Principles, a set of guidelines adopted by the UNSC CTC. The principles address the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for terrorist purposes agreed upon in December 2023. These are the non-binding guiding principles for member states on preventing, detecting and disrupting the use of new and emerging financial technologies for terrorist purposes. Sources added that these guiding principles assume significance as they have been prepared taking forward the commitments made by the Security ..

Pakistan began its two-year tenure as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on January 1, with Ambassador Munir Akram saying that the Pakistani delegation will play an active and constructive role in addressing key challenges facing the world. Our presence will be felt in the Security Council, Ambassador Akram, Pakistan's top diplomat at the UN, told state-run APP (Associated Press of Pakistan) news agency. From Wednesday, Pakistan will sit in the Security Council for the 2025-26 term as a non-permanent member the eighth time that the country has had a seat on the 15-member body's horseshoe table. In June, Pakistan was elected to the council with a massive majority as a non-permanent member, polling 182 votes in the 193-member General Assembly far more than the required 124 votes representing a two-thirds majority. We enter the council at a time of great geopolitical turbulence, intense competition between the two largest powers, raging wars in Euro

The United Nations Security Council met behind closed doors late on Monday, and diplomats said they were still in shock at how quickly Assad's overthrow unfolded over 12 days

Palestinian medical officials said Monday that Israeli strikes in the central Gaza Strip overnight killed at least six people, including one woman. The strikes came as ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad fled to Moscow on Sunday and received asylum from his longtime ally, according to Russian media, hours after rebels seized control of Damascus. The UN Security Council plans to hold emergency closed consultations on Syria later Monday at Russia's request. Among the dead in the overnight Israeli strikes were Raed Ghabaien, who was released from Israeli detention in 2014, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the casualties were taken. He was killed along with his wife when an Israeli strike hit their tent in the central town of Zuweida, the hospital records showed. Two other people were killed in a strike that hit their house late Sunday in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp. Another two were killed in a strike in the Wadi Gaza area early Monday. An Associated Press journa

The commission, established in 2005, was tasked with advising the UN General Assembly and the Security Council on issues of peacebuilding and sustaining peace

The United States on Wednesday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the war in Gaza because it was not linked to an immediate release of hostages taken captive by Hamas militants in Israel in October 2023. The council voted overwhelmingly in favour of the resolution 14 of its 15 members voted yes including US allies Britain and France but it was doomed by the veto. US deputy ambassador Robert Wood said the United States worked for weeks to avoid a veto of the resolution sponsored by the council's 10 elected members, and expressed regret that compromise language was not accepted. We made clear throughout negotiations we could not support an unconditional cease-fire that failed to release the hostages, he said. Hamas would have seen it as a vindication of its cynical strategy to hope and pray the international community forgets about the fate of more than 100 hostages from more than 20 member states who have been held for 410 days. The ...

India is unsatisfied with the pace of progress on Security Council reform, the country's envoy at the UN said, noting that there are countries who prefer the status quo and those that oppose expansion in the permanent category at all costs as they feel their neighbours may have a chance to become a member. The Security Council structure, as it stands today, is a reflection of 1945. It does not reflect today's realities, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish said during a conversation here on Tuesday. Harish delivered the keynote address on Responding to Key Global Challenges: The India Way' at an event at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). Harish gave an expansive overview of the India way on key global issues ranging from reformed multilateralism, terrorism, demography, India's digital revolution to the country's youth, climate change, democracy, healthcare and vaccines. The event was co-sponsored by the MPA

Harish pointed to three key factors hindering it: the ineffective intergovernmental negotiation process, the insistence on consensus by some countries, and lack of representation for the Global South

The UN Security Council expressed strong concern Monday as Israel has fired on and wounded UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon during intensified fighting, reiterating its support for their role in supporting security in the region. It's the first statement by the UN's most powerful body since Israel's attacks on the positions of the peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL began last week, drawing international condemnation. UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Lacroix told reporters that Secretary-General Antnio Guterres confirmed Monday that peacekeepers will remain in all their positions even as Israel has urged the peacekeepers to move 5 kilometers (3 miles) north during its ground invasion in Lebanon. Israel has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon across a UN-drawn boundary between the two countries. The sides have been clashing since the Iranian-backed militant group started firing rockets a year ago in solidarity with its ally Hamas in Gaza. Hamas' deadly attacks

The United States has reaffirmed its support for new permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council, including India, but may not support extending veto powers to new members

Central to India's position is need for text-based negotiations within IGN framework, Patel pointed out that, unlike other multilateral processes, discussions on UNSC reform have that yet to adopt

The Palestinians said Thursday they are planning to introduce a U.N. General Assembly resolution in September enshrining the recent sweeping ruling by the U.N.'s top court that declared Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territories unlawful and setting a time frame for it to end. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told the U.N. Security Council that the resolution, which would not be legally binding, is essential to spur the end of Israel's occupation. We are sick and tired of waiting, he said. The time for waiting is over. The International Court of Justice on July 19 issued an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel's rule o ver the lands it captured 57 years ago. It called for the occupation to end and for settlement construction to stop immediately. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state. Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon, who spoke to the

A reform of the UN Security Council that does not address the lack of representation, particularly in the permanent category, would only "exacerbate" the current imbalances in its composition and render it "ill-equipped" to address current global challenges, India has said on behalf of the G4 countries. Recent global geopolitical events have clearly shown that the UN Security Council is unable to deliver on its primary responsibilities to safeguard international peace and security when the world needs it the most, Charg d'Affaires and Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the UN Ambassador R Ravindra said on Monday. He was delivering a statement on behalf of the G4 countries -- Brazil, Germany, Japan and India -- at the UNSC High-Level Debate on Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Addressing the Historical Injustice and enhancing Africa's effective representation in the UNSC'. The realities of 1945, when the Council was established, have long been superseded by ..

In a high-level debate on Monday, United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, addressing Security Council said that the composition of the UNSC has failed to keep pace with a changing world

The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved more transparent procedures Friday for the hundreds of individuals, companies and other entities who are subject to UN sanctions and want to get off the blacklists. The resolution, co-sponsored by Malta and the United States, also authorizes the establishment of a new informal working group by the Security Council to examine ways to improve the effectiveness of U.N. sanctions. Malta's UN Ambassador Vanessa Frazier told the council before the vote that the resolution is a clear signal of this council's commitment towards due process. It authorises a new focal point to directly engage with those seeking to get off sanctions lists and gather information from a variety of sources to share with the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions, which makes the decisions on delisting, she said. And it requires the reason for the committee's decision to be given to the petitioner. After the vote, U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood

The Taliban's morality police are contributing to a climate of fear and intimidation among Afghans, according to a UN report published Tuesday. Edicts and some of the methods used to enforce them constituted a violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the report said. The Taliban set up a ministry for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice after seizing power in 2021. Since then, the ministry has enforced decrees issued by the Taliban leadership that have a disproportionate impact on women and girls, like dress codes, segregated education and employment, and having a male guardian when they travel. The punishments attached to non-compliance with instructions and decrees are often arbitrary, severe and disproportionate, said the report from the UN Mission in Afghanistan. Sweeping bans with a discriminatory effect on women have been introduced. Human rights violations, as well as the unpredictability of enforcement measures, contribute to a climate of fear and

India has asserted that as the United Nations turns 80 next year, it is "high time to reform the Security Council by expanding its permanent and non-permanent categories to enable it to manage today's global conflicts effectively. Delivering India's statement at the UN General Assembly debate on the Annual Report of the UN Security Council, Pratik Mathur, Minister in India's Permanent Mission to the UN, said that since performance assessment has become one of the focus areas at the United Nations as part of the discussions on global governance reforms, the Security Council, too, needs to prove its credibility and improve its performance. Speaking today in 2024, a year before the United Nations turns 80, it is thus high time to bring the Council in line with its Charter responsibilities to act on behalf of the entire membership, Mathur said on Tuesday. Mathur said this will not be achieved without enhancing the Council's membership in both permanent and non-permanent categories. Mat

Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire plan for the Gaza Strip a week ago that he described as an Israeli initiative