Meetings Coverage

The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina told the Security Council today that, given what he saw in that country, there was still a clear need for his Office to remain in place, and given the continued negative trends and political instability, it was essential for EUFOR (European Union multinational stabilization force), with a Chapter VII executive mandate, to also remain in place.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today approved a draft resolution that would have the General Assembly adopt a new, third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child establishing a communications procedure, which would allow the Committee overseeing the Convention’s implementation to receive and examine individual complaints from children and to organize country visits to investigate cases of grave and systematic violations of children’s rights.

A senior official in the Department of Management unveiled before the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this afternoon the first phase of efforts to create a comprehensive emergency management framework, part of the major push to make the Organization’s New York Headquarters better able to cope with man-made threats and natural hazards.

Terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction continued to pose a serious threat to international peace and security, the Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1540 (2004) said as the Security Council reviewed the work of its three anti-terrorism Committees.

Strongly condemning ongoing attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in parts of central Africa, the Security Council today, taking up two reports on the region, demanded an immediate end to all attacks by that armed group, particularly those on civilians, urged the release of all abductees and insisted that all elements of the group surrender and disarm.

A concerning escalation of tensions along the border areas between Sudan and South Sudan could flare into widespread violence unless both sides recommitted to finding peaceful solutions to pending issues, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations warned the Security Council this morning during a briefing on recent developments in those countries.

Ending the current session of its work, the General Assembly’s Sixth Committee (Legal) approved ten draft resolutions today, including one which recommends observer status in the Assembly for the West African Economic and Monetary Union, an organization credited with fostering economic integration in its region.

As deterrents of war crimes and guards against the “baser” aspects of human nature, the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia had had a far‑reaching impact over the course of their lifespan, said General Assembly delegates in a joint debate today.

The Security Council, meeting independently from, but concurrently with, the General Assembly, today elected four judges to the International Court of Justice for nine-year terms, beginning on 6 February 2012, but failed to elect a fifth judge during five rounds of secret balloting.

Concluding its work for the session, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) recommended the expansion of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation to include those five Member States serving as observers since 2007, by one of 11 draft resolutions it approved today.