S/PV.8784 Security Council

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S/2021/521, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2021/470, which contains the report of the Secretary-General on the situation in the Sudan and the activities of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in the Sudan. The Council is ready to proceed to the vote on the draft resolution before it. I shall put the draft resolution to the vote now.

The draft resolution received 15 votes in favour. The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as resolution 2579 (2021). I shall now give the floor to those members of the Council who wish to make statements following the voting.

The United States welcomes the adoption of the renewed mandate for the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in the Sudan (UNITAMS). We are grateful for the tenacity of the United Kingdom in getting the Security Council to consensus, and to the Sudan for its support of the Council’s efforts. As we have previously indicated, the United States believes that UNITAMS is crucial to support the political transition and the peace process, assist in peacebuilding and provide critical assistance for security sector reform, police training, the rule of law and inclusive civilian governance. The United States would like to clarify one issue. The tenth preambular paragraph refers to “grave violations against children”. The United States understands that phrase to refer only to the six specific violations identified by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and armed conflict, and it accepted the language in resolution 2579 (2021) on that basis.

The Russian delegation voted in favour of extending the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in the Sudan (UNITAMS). Our view is that it is absolutely necessary to help Khartoum as they build their State and implement peacebuilding initiatives. What is also important is that the Sudan, as host country, supported the vision for the future work of the special political mission as proposed by the Council. We hope that there will be fruitful cooperation among Khartoum, UNITAMS and the Security Council. At the same time, we cannot overlook the fact that, in the course of the negotiations, in spite of the fact that we proposed many compromise solutions, the sponsors of resolution 2579 (2021) declined to take a comprehensive view of the development challenges the Sudan faces, preferring to shift the focus to the climate agenda. We think it is counterproductive to single out the negative effects of climate change and other environmental factors and considering them separately from other issues of socioeconomic development. It is impossible to deny that widespread poverty, the lack of infrastructure, the low technological potential and a low level of donor support are things that are more obvious and more directly impede the country’s stable development, more so than climate change. We regret the fact that the authors decided not to reflect that in the text of the resolution.