Meetings Coverage

In a briefing to the Security Council this morning, the top United Nations official in Burundi praised the Central African country’s continued progress in consolidating peace and stability, but he cautioned that, with critical elections on the horizon, sustained international political engagement would be required to effectively remedy the two-year standoff between the Government and opposition parties, and ease the lingering economic hardships facing the Burundian people.

Adoption in the Security Council this morning of a resolution to extend for a further six months, until 31 July 2013, the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, first established in 1964, received the support of 14 members, while one delegation, that of Azerbaijan, had abstained.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic until 31 January 2014, with a strong emphasis on restoring security to that country seeking to recover from the ruins of decades of instability, as well as a recent month-long crisis during which rebel groups had advanced on the capital before being halted by a ceasefire and other agreements.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), entering its fourth day of examining applications for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, today added 19 groups to the more than 3,500 it has accredited since its creation in 1946.

“This is not a time to be idle,” Robert Serry, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the Security Council today, stressing that the consequences of inaction in the Arab-Israeli conflict could be dire for everyone. Absent serious engagement, he said, opening a day-long debate that grappled with the range of interlocking challenges confronting that complex region, the peace process would remain on life support and stability on the ground would be put at further risk.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), entering its third day of examining applications for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, today added 36 groups to the more than 3,500 it has accredited since its creation in 1946.

With French and Malian forces carrying out joint military operations to regain control of areas seized by armed extremists over the past 10 months, a senior United Nations official today said that the crisis in Mali could be at a potential turning point, and as the Security Council now prepared to consider long-term solutions, it must examine the deep-seated challenges that had led to the shocking eruption of violence in the once vaunted West African democracy.

The Security Council, condemning the launch by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 12 December 2012, which used ballistic missile technology in violation of the sanctions imposed on it, today demanded that the country not proceed with any further such activities and expressed its “determination to take significant action” in the event it did so.

The General Assembly today adopted, by consensus, a decision establishing the composition of the 30-country Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, as called for by the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (“Rio+20”) outcome document, entitled “The Future We Want”.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), continuing its scrutiny of applicants seeking consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, today added 33 groups to the more than 3,500 accredited since it was established in 1946.