Meetings Coverage

Reiterating its strong condemnation of the 12 April military coup in Guinea-Bissau and rejecting the unconstitutional creation of a Transitional National Council by the military leadership and its supporters, the Security Council today demanded the immediate restoration of constitutional order and the reinstatement of that West African nation’s legitimate Government.

While the Disarmament Commission had achieved the minimum necessary to consider its 2012 session a “relative success”, Chairman Enrique Román-Morey challenged delegates to also ask why — despite huge personal efforts and displays of flexibility — they had failed to achieve the consensus needed to allow them to prepare the ground for discussion of key disarmament matters elsewhere, in negotiating forums.

It was clearly a political-military coup and an act of military insubordination to the democratically elected civilian authorities, the Secretary-General’s top envoy in Guinea-Bissau said today of the 12 April events in the West African nation, which he said would be recorded in history as “one more coup that took place under the UN eye, and hence the whole international community”.

Expressing grave concern over the threat of terrorism and the risk of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands and trafficking networks of non-State actors, the Security Council today reaffirmed the need for all Member States to fully comply with their commitments to arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation.

The Special Committee on Decolonization — also known as the Special Conference of 24 — today decided to hold its Pacific Regional Seminar in the Ecuadorian capital Quito, from 30 May to 1 June this year, to review progress in the United Nations decolonization process.

Recognizing the global public health and development burden resulting from road traffic crashes, the General Assembly today adopted a consensus resolution welcoming the national and local launches of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 in over 100 countries, the regional launches, and other global events designed to stem the “staggering” number of preventable casualties on the roads.

Specialization made a major contribution to economic success, but precluded holistic thinking, a mindset vital to sustainable development, senior United Nations officials said today, underscoring the important role of science in crafting a new paradigm that reflected the impacts of human activity on the Earth’s system and sought to devise ways to minimize or reverse them.

The Disarmament Commission met briefly this morning and completed the Bureau for its 2012 session with the election of two Vice-Chairs and a Rapporteur.

Strongly condemning the 13 April satellite launch by the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, the Security Council this morning demanded that the country stop all ballistic missile activity and not conduct any nuclear tests, while also tightening the sanctions regime on the country.

The General Assembly today filled three impending vacancies on the United Nations Dispute Tribunal, the panel inaugurated in 2009 to help bolster the world body’s system for dealing with internal grievances and disciplinary cases.