Despite Organ’s Stalled Action on Non-Proliferation Threats, Protracted Conflicts, Progress in Colombia Shows Peace, Reconciliation Possible
As the Security Council fully resumed in-person meetings, the invasion of Ukraine at the start of the year by the Russian Federation — a permanent, veto-wielding member of the Council — plunged the 15-nation organ into a fractious new normal, widening pre-existing rifts, making consensus more laborious than ever to achieve and impeding efforts to fulfil their responsibility in maintaining international peace and security.
The Council convened a total of 276 public meetings — up from 246 in 2021 — 46 of which were devoted to the situation in Ukraine. The proliferation of meetings was accompanied by fewer adopted resolutions: 54 in 2022, down from 57 in 2021 and 2020. As many as 18 of these adoptions — a third — were non-unanimous, compared to less than a sixth in 2021, a reflection of the Council’s internal dissension. Similarly, the elusiveness of unanimity led to its adopting considerably fewer presidential declarations, only 7, compared to 24 in 2021. However, the number of press statements issued rose to 67, from 60 in 2021.
The use of the veto also rose from once in 2021 to four times in 2022, wielded each time by the Russian Federation, twice on matters relating to Ukraine. That country’s veto on 25 February, in response to a resolution intended to bring its offensive against its neighbour to a halt, prompted the Council to refer that situation to the General Assembly, the first time it was doing so in 40 years. The constraints placed on the Council’s capacity to act prompted ever more vociferous calls for its reform. Newfound urgency around the use of the veto also prompted a brand-new precedent: In April, the General Assembly decided that it would meet automatically within 10 days of the use of the veto at the Council by one of that organ’s five permanent members.
Early in the year, Secretary-General António Guterres appeared before the Council to sound the alarm about urban warfare, which impacted 50 million people around the world, warning that civilians accounted for 90 per cent of those affected by the use of explosive weapons in urban spaces. That concern foreshadowed the fallout of the Ukraine war and the devastating human cost it would extract, a cost highlighted by many briefers in the course of the year, including the Director at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Ramesh Rajasingham, who warned in May that as many as 100 million civilians were fleeing such conflicts for the first time on record.
Throughout the year, the Council addressed issues related to women, peace and security, hearing from a range of briefers who underlined the need to increase women’s representation in peace processes, redress setbacks to gender equality resulting from the pandemic and address conflict-related sexual violence. That particular issue was the focus of an open debate in April, with Pramila Patten, Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, questioning what the Council’s resolutions on women, peace and security meant for women in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Ethiopia, as verified cases of sexual violence increased across the globe. The Council also heard from Nadia Murad, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Goodwill Ambassador, who called for action and accountability, rather than moral outrage, and for Governments to support victims, who were too often left to pick up the pieces of their lives alone.
Despite the prevailing atmosphere of dissension, there were a number of issues upon which Council members agreed, including the need to improve the safety, security and well-being of its more than 80,000 peacekeepers, the majority of whom are deployed to the world’s most complex conflict environments. In July, during a ministerial-level open debate, Secretary-General Guterres warned of the potential deadliness of disinformation, and its ability to change “our blue flag from a symbol of security into a target for attack”. The Council then adopted a presidential statement emphasizing the need to improve strategic communications across peacekeeping operations’ civilian, military and police components. In December, the Council also unanimously adopted resolution 2668 (2022), recognizing the need to raise awareness of the importance of mental health and psychosocial support to United Nations peace operations personnel.
The Council also took up the topic of sanctions and their unintended consequences after a five-year spell. In February, Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, spotlighted the humanitarian carve-out in Afghanistan — first put in place in December 2021 — as a way to permit humanitarian aid to reach those at greatest risk. In December, consensus on that usually divisive issue was found in the adoption of resolution 2664 (2022) provided a standing humanitarian exemption to asset freeze measures imposed by United Nations sanctions regimes, which Council members also decided would apply for a two-year period to the 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida sanctions regime.
Progress was also made in redressing the widespread socioeconomic and vaccine inequity that followed the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years. In April, the Council heard from Ted Chaiban, Global Lead Coordinator for COVID-19 Vaccine Country Readiness and Delivery, part of the COVAX Facility, an initiative aimed at effectuating equitable worldwide access to COVID-19 vaccines. He pointed out that, as a result of the partnership’s focus on 34 countries where coverage dwindled below 10 per cent, the first four months of the year saw the number of countries with coverage at or below that rate drop to 18 countries.
In a year when most conflict situations under the Council’s purview deteriorated or stayed in a frozen state, the situation in Colombia proved that peace and reconciliation was possible. Six years after the historic peace accord between the Government and the rebel group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP), efforts to implement the agreement received a boost in June through the elections of Gustavo Petro as President, and Francia Márquez, the first Afro-Colombian Vice-President in the country’s history. Meeting in July, just ahead of President-elect Petro assuming office, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, told the Council of the new Government’s commitment to make peace and the implementation of the agreement a cornerstone of their policy. “There are good reasons for optimism for peace,” he reported.
However, Council divisions came to the fore during emergency meetings addressing the unprecedented flurry of intercontinental-ballistic-missile launches by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The first of these meetings in March convened following a dozen missile launches by Pyongyang in contravention of several Council resolutions, with one missile landing within Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, called for the Council’s unity, as Japan’s representative decried that organ’s “long-regrettable silence”. In May, the Council attempted to adopt a resolution that would have strengthened sanctions on Pyongyang for its illegal launches. However, that text was thwarted by the Russian Federation and China’s use of the veto, who denounced the measures as counterproductive and inhumane. Several delegates voiced regret over the vote’s outcome, with Japan’s representative, once again, questioning what the Security Council was for if not to act in such cases and calling the reasons of those who voted against the draft “unconvincing”.
The Council’s divisions came into even sharper focus with the war in Ukraine as it addressed that conflict’s fallouts, including, among others, global food supplies and world-wide food shortages, fleeing of millions of refugees to neighbouring countries and the threat posed by the shelling of Zaporizhzhia Power Plant. In February, shortly after the Council met and Secretary-General Guterres urged the Russian Federation not to attack Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin announced the start of a “special military operation”. In the months that followed, the Council was briefed extensively on the war’s impact on civilian, as infrastructure was destroyed and casualties mounted. However, amid escalating concerns over the conflict’s consequences on global food security, the Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed in Istanbul in July. Designed to facilitate the safe transport of grain and foodstuffs from Ukrainian ports to developing countries at risk of food insecurity, Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo told the Council that this “beacon of hope” demonstrated dialogue between the parties was possible.
Nonetheless, United Nations officials returned to the Council time and again to urge an end to the war amidst continuing attacks on hospitals, schools and public services, as well as reports of civilians being arbitrarily detained, tortured and disappeared. Adding to tensions, the Russian Federation, in September, proclaimed annexation of certain Ukrainian regions, and as colder months approached, launched missile and drone strikes against critical energy infrastructure. While many Council members accused Moscow of weaponizing winter, the Russian Federation’s delegate said his country would use all available logistical and military means to protect its interests — one example of the diverging stances that defined the Council’s debates on this issue.
Similar divisions also played out during the Council’s 27 meetings addressing the situation in Syria, with differences cropping up regarding sanctions, the renewal of cross-border authorization for humanitarian aid in the country’s opposition-controlled north-west, the use of chemical weapons and even on the appropriate number of monthly meetings to be held on the country’s humanitarian and political situations. With the conflict entering its twelfth year in March, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy Geir O. Pedersen cautioned that little progress had been made in reconvening negotiations of the Syrian Constitutional Committee tasked in 2019 to draft a new Constitution. In August, he informed the Council that, although relative calm over the past two years had provided a “window to build a credible political process”, the opportunity had not yet been seized. That calm was shattered in subsequent months, following attacks by fighters from the Council-listed terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Afrin and pro-Government air strikes in the north-west as well as, in November, an upsurge of fighting across northern Syria between the Syrian Democratic Forces and Türkiye and armed opposition groups. Special Envoy Pedersen, noting that the Constitutional Committee had not met in six months, stressed that the absence of a credible political process only promoted further conflict and instability.
Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths, also briefing the Council on the dire humanitarian situation — compounded by fuel and water shortages and a spreading cholera outbreak — said that the number of Syrians requiring life-sustaining aid was expected to surpass 15 million in 2023. With the urgent need to renew the authorization keeping the Bab al-Hawa crossing between Syria and Türkiye open for humanitarian aid delivery to 4 million people in the north-west, negotiations were contentious, with the Council rejecting two competing resolutions. The first text, vetoed by the Russian Federation, would have left the border crossing open for 12 months, leading the delegate of the United States to deplore “one member taking the entire Council hostage with lives hanging in the balance”. Following protracted negotiations, the Council adopted resolution 2642 (2022) in July, a compromise text extending the use of the border-crossing for six months, until January 2023.
Although the ceasefire agreement reached in May 2021 between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas largely held, Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Council that escalating tensions, daily clashes and unchecked settlement activity were dimming hopes for a two-State solution. In August, the killing of a Palestinian teenager during an operation by the Israeli Defense Forces in Jenin refugee camp led to three days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants, leaving 46 Palestinians dead, including 4 children. Briefing the Council, Special Coordinator Wennesland welcomed efforts by Egypt and others in brokering a truce, pointing out that it helped prevent the outbreak of a full-scale war. In November, regarding attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in Hebron, Mr. Wennesland stressed: “Political leadership is required to reset a trajectory towards a two-State solution.” Nonetheless, the year also witnessed the signing on 13 October of the Algiers Declaration, in which 14 Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, agreed to recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
Libya entered 2022 mired in turbulence and political uncertainty, due to the postponement of national elections slated for December 2021. Briefing the Council, Under-Secretary-General DiCarlo detailed steps taken to advance the electoral process, including establishing a road map committee to define a timetable and process for elections, which was then actualized in June in a high-level meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva. Still, consensus was not reached on the eligibility requirements for presidential candidates. In October, the newly appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya and Head of United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Abdoulaye Bathily, told the Council that the solution must be based on the will of the Libyan people. The Libyan delegate, welcoming “a glimmer of hope” emerging from the Council, urged support for the electoral process. However, in December, Mr. Bathily reported that the situation had deteriorated on all fronts, with leaders failing to finalize a constitutional basis for elections. Nonetheless, progress on accountability for crimes committed in Libya in 2011 was made, with newly appointed International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan visiting the country in November, marking the first visit of his office since the Council referred the situation to the Court more than a decade ago.
The conflict in Yemen entered its eighth year, with a surge in attacks beyond Yemen’s borders and into the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia by Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis. By March, Under-Secretary-General Griffiths informed the Council that as many as 23.4 million Yemenis needed assistance, warning that the country was becoming a chronic emergency, marked by hunger, disease and other miseries that were rising faster than aid agencies could reverse. In April, a United Nations-brokered truce between the Government of Yemen and Houthi rebels brought some respite from hostilities, which Hans Grundberg, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen, stressed represented the best opportunity for peace in Yemen in years. However, the agreement was not renewed once it expired in October.
The situation in West Africa and the Sahel also remained complex and volatile, with Ghada Fathi Waly, Executive Director United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), informing the Council that transnational organized crime — facilitated by corruption — was perpetuating instability, violence and poverty. Council members also expressed concern about the withdrawal of Mali from all Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel) bodies, including the joint force, forcing the subregional organization to shift its headquarters from Bamako, the capital of Mali, to N’Djaména in Chad. However, the region also experienced positive developments, in the form of regional diplomatic efforts towards achieving lasting peace, through the regional Heads of State Conclave held in April in Nairobi, which the Council welcomed through a presidential statement in June.
In March, Bintou Keita, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Head of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) outlined to the Council measures taken to assist operations of the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo and the Uganda People’s Defence Forces to curb the activities of armed groups, including the 23 March Movement (M23). The Council issued a great many press statements condemning attacks by armed groups against both civilians and peacekeepers in the region, including one in February that killed 58 civilians in a camp for internally displaced persons in Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Among other developments, the Council devoted several meetings in 2022 to Haiti, which has been gripped by overlapping security, economic and humanitarian crises, as well as a rapidly spreading cholera outbreak, since the assassination in 2021 of President Jovenel Moïse. In October, following the blockade by criminal gangs of the country’s primary fuel source, Prime Minister Ariel Henry appealed to the international community for help. The Council responded soon after by establishing a sanctions regime on Haiti — its first new sanctions regime since 2017 — unanimously adopting resolution 2653 (2022).
In addition, the Council met in December to adopt its first-ever resolution on Myanmar, resolution 2669 (2022), by a vote of 12 in favour to none against, with 3 abstentions (China, India, Russian Federation). By the text, it demanded an immediate end to violence throughout the country and urged restraint and the de-escalation of tensions. It also urged the Myanmar military to release arbitrarily detained prisoners, including President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. It also devoted two meetings to the situation in Azerbaijan, following clashes breaking out on the border with Armenia in September.
Source: UN Security Council