Nine elected members of the UNSC have written to the president of the Security Council requesting a meeting on the "peace and security impacts of COVID-19".
A pandemic that has so far claimed nearly 70,000 lives and has affected over 12.7 lakh people globally, putting almost half of the world's population under lockdown, is yet to be discussed by the United Nations in what is seen as a failure of the world body in a time of such an unprecedented crisis. This may, however, change soon with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) likely to discuss the novel coronavirus outbreak this week.
The UNSC in its release on the this week's agenda has said that it could discuss the COVID-19 pandemic. "A meeting this week on this issue is possible."
Nine elected members of the UNSC have written to the president of the Security Council requesting a meeting on the "peace and security impacts of COVID-19", said the agenda.
Currently, two draft resolutions on COVID-19 are under discussion among different groups of UNSC members – one among the permanent members and another among the elected members.
The meet could not take place in March due to the unwillingness of China - the president of the body in the month. The President of (UNSC) for the month of April, Dominican Republic has said that a session on coronavirus crisis can happen soon.
Jose Singer, Special Envoy from the Dominican Republic to the United Nations Security Council Ambassador, had said last week that a special meet on COVID is being "negotiated" & "it has been brought up by few (UNSC) envoy..it is taking shape."
"UNSC session could happen for sure next week or before," Singer said while listing out the council's agenda for the month.
When asked if a resolution can be expected on COVID crisis, he said, "Have not discussed the issue of resolution (on COVID)" and "We expect to hold the meet and see how events play out."
United Nations, especially its core body UNSC, is found missing during the COVID crisis. It was G20 that took the responsibility for a global strategy to deal with the crisis. The G20 leaders held a deliberation via video conference last month to chalk out an action plan to deal with the challenge.
The idea of the meet was discussed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his G20 counterparts including the chair of G20 Saudi Arabia. PM Modi had taken the global lead in call for a video conference of SAARC countries for a common approach to deal with the crisis.
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