Meetings Coverage

The Security Council today passed unanimously a resolution strengthening and expanding the scope of United Nations sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea by targeting the illicit activities of diplomatic personnel, transfers of bulk cash, and the country’s banking relationships, in response to that country’s third nuclear test on 12 February.

Societies must be willing to examine the underlying causes of gender-based violence, the systems that facilitated it and the factors that exacerbated it, in particular, armed conflict, HIV/AIDS and poverty, senior Government officials stressed as the Commission on the Status of Women moved into the third day of its fifty-seventh annual session.

The committee monitoring sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear programme “is currently exploring” appropriate actions in response to that country’s July 2012 missile launches and “stands ready” to act on other allegations of non-compliance, the Chair of the Committee said today, as he briefed the Security Council.

Responding to calls for a change in support to Somalia, in line with notable progress there, the Security Council today decided to maintain deployment of the African Union Mission until 28 February 2014, reshape the United Nations presence there, and partially lift its 20-year weapons ban for one year to boost the Government’s capacity to protect areas recovered from the militant group Al-Shabaab and stave off fresh attempts by such groups to destabilize the country.

As the recent “horrific” abuse of women in India and around the world had laid bare, it was not a lack of normative or legal frameworks — but rather their effective implementation — that impeded efforts to combat such violence and end the culture of impunity that protected perpetrators, senior Government officials said today, as the Commission on the Status of Women moved into day two of its general debate.

Looking to bolster the new regional accord for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on the Security Council to create a special “intervention brigade” within the existing United Nations peacekeeping operation to combat rebel groups destabilizing the county’s eastern region.

With the scourge of violence against women and girls still rampant around the world, the international community must “rise to the occasion” and lay out concrete plans to tackle that long-standing, deeply entrenched crisis, stressed high-level speakers as the Commission on the Status of Women opened its historic fifty-seventh session today.

Concern over reimbursement rates for peacekeeping troop contributors, the cost of staff air travel, implementation of the staff mobility initiative, and the report of the Joint Inspection Unit dominated the debate of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today, as it opened its resumed session.

ROME, 28 February — A robust, financially stable Palestinian Authority was vital to ensuring enhanced international engagement, a viable Palestinian economy and sustainable human development in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, speakers said this afternoon as the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People wrapped up its work.

ROME, 28 February — As the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People continued today, experts highlighted the complex challenges of developing a self-sustaining economy under occupation and outlined programmes aimed at rebuilding the severely eroded Palestinian agriculture sector, ensuring high governance standards and generating donor support for reconstruction of Gaza.