The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on 20 November 2015 unanimously adopted a French-sponsored resolution 2249 (2015) calling all nations to take all necessary measures to prevent and suppress the terrorist acts of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other extremist groups.
What is in the Resolution?
- The resolution mentions that ISIS group constitutes a global and unprecedented threat to international peace and security and expresses its determination to combat it by all means.
- It unequivocally condemns in the strongest terms the horrifying terrorist attacks carried out by the Islamic State in Sousse, Tunisia and Ankara, Turkey in 2015.
- It urges UN member states to intensify their efforts to stem the flow of foreign terrorist fighters in Iraq and Syria and to prevent and suppress the financing on terrorism.
- It is the 14th terrorism-related resolution adopted by the UNSC since 1999.
What is Not in the Resolution?
- The resolution does not constitute an authorisation for military action.
- This is because the resolution is not drafted under ‘Chapter 7 of the UN Charter’.
- Drafting a resolution under ‘Chapter 7 of the UN Charter’ is the only way the United Nations can give a green light to the use of force.
Reasons behind the adoption of resolution?
The resolution was adopted by UNSC just a week after ISIS extremists had launched a coordinated barbaric gun and bomb assault in Paris (France) on 13 November 2015 killing 130 people.
ISIS also claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings in Beirut (Lebanon) which killed 43 people and for bombing of Russian airliner which was crashed over Egypt’s Sinai peninsula killing all 224 people on board earlier in November 2015.
