UNITED NATIONS — Centuries after piracy was recognized as the first international crime against humanity, its spread around the world has prompted the U.N. Security Council’s first debate today on piracy’s rise as a threat to world peace and security.
In the past, the council has focused on various regional outbreaks of the scourge. But piracy has been metastasizing worldwide with hotspots off Somalia, in the Gulf of Guinea off West Africa and in Southeast Asia.
Today’s Security Council debate was called by the council’s president, Indian Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, representing a country that has many sailors held hostage by modern pirates. Seven percent of all maritime workers are Indian nationals.
