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Tomorrow, 31 December, Belgium's sixth mandate in the UN Security Council (VNVR) will come to an end. Two and a half years ago, our country had received the support of no less than 181 countries to sit at the table of the most important body for international peace and security for two years. During those two years, Belgium has been active on all the dossiers on the agenda of this body.

At the end of December, Belgium will complete its two-year term on the UN Security Council, the sixth since the creation of the UN in 1945. Several important files for Belgium's foreign policy will be on the agenda in the last weeks of this mandate.

This afternoon, Minister for Development Cooperation and Major Cities Policy Meryame Kitir addressed the Security Council for the first time under the Belgian mandate during a ministerial debate on contemporary causes of conflict and insecurity, such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. In view of the preventive measures against COVID-19, the session was held in a virtual manner.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Philippe Goffin participates today to a high-level debate of the United Nations Security Council on the theme "Global governance after the COVID-19 pandemic".

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence, Philippe Goffin, welcomes the compromise reached by the members of the United Nations Security Council, which extends the "cross-border" mechanism aimed at providing humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people for 12 months via the Bab al-Hawa border point. However, the possibilities for delivering humanitarian aid through Bab al-Salam need to be improved.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Philippe Goffin welcomes the resolution adopted today by the United Nations Security Council in New York on the Covid-19 pandemic. With resolution 2532, the Security Council calls for ninety-day humanitarian ceasefires in all conflict zones around the world to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. The Security Council thus builds on the call previously made by Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a global humanitarian ceasefire - an appeal to which Belgium has subscribed from the start and which is of great importance for several conflict zones, such as Yemen and Syria.

On the 29th of April, after months of negotiations lead by Belgium, the UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict reached an agreement on recommendations on how to counter violations of children’s rights in Afghanistan.

On the 15th of April, after months of negotiations lead by Belgium, the UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict reached an agreement on recommendations on how to counter violations of children’s rights in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Yesterday, Belgium – as chair of the Working Group for Children and Armed Conflicts – announced conclusions on the situation of children in the armed conflict in Yemen were adopted unanimously. The fight against impunity, and more in particular children’s right violations, has long been one of Belgium’s foreign policy priorities. Also on the humanitarian front, Belgium is in the leading group of European donors with more than 9 million euros of humanitarian aid specifically targeted at Yemen.

During its two-year membership (2019-2020) of the UN Security Council, Belgium attaches great importance to ‘children and armed conflict’. The theme also occupies a central position during the Belgian presidency of the Security Council (February 2020).