The Council, which has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, in 2019 considered 49 agenda items and dispatched five missions to the field to Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau, the Sahel (Mali and Burkina Faso), Iraq and Kuwait, Colombia, and Ethiopia and South Sudan, said the report.

 

In 2019, the Council added a new agenda item, namely, "The situation in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela." During the months of March and April, France and Germany held the presidency of the Council in sequence and coordinated their successive programs of work under the so-called "twin presidency." In April, the Council opened its curtains for the first time in 65 years, according to the report.

 

In 2019, the Council adopted two major resolutions relating to the fight against terrorism, namely, Resolution 2462 (2019), emphasizing the obligation of member states to criminalize the financing of terrorism, and Resolution 2482 (2019), calling on member states to strengthen a global response to the linkages between international terrorism and organized crime. The Council also adopted two ground breaking resolutions relating to the protection of civilians: Resolution 2474 (2019), calling on parties to armed conflict to actively search for persons reported missing and Resolution 2475 (2019), urging all parties in armed conflict to protect civilians, including those with disabilities.

 

According to the report, the Council held last year 18 high-level meetings, in which two or more Council members were represented at ministerial level or above. On Sept. 2019, the Council held a high-level meeting on peace and security in Africa, which focused on African Union-led efforts, including the "Silencing the guns by 2020" initiative, to address regional peace and security challenges. The meeting registered the highest number of Council members represented at a high-level in 2019 with 12 Council members represented at ministerial level.

 

In 2019, 42 of the 52 resolutions and 11 of the 15 presidential statements concerned country or region-specific situations or conflicts; Africa accounted for 64.2 percent of those resolutions and presidential statements (34 in total), followed by the Middle East with 18.9 percent (10), and Asia, the Americas, and Europe with 5.7 percent each (three each).