Meetings Coverage

The Security Council this afternoon condemned all acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea committed off the coast of the States of the Gulf of Guinea.

Calling for action to stem the proliferation of portable surface-to-air missiles and other arms from Libya by the country’s interim authorities, regional States and other relevant Member States, the Security Council this afternoon authorized the Libya sanctions committee to propose a strategy to keep such materiel out of the hands of terrorists and others.

The United Nations agenda for action on peacebuilding in the immediate aftermath of conflict — when threats to peace were often greatest — was beginning to yield promising results on the ground, a top official for peacebuilding support told the Security Council this morning.

Now facing its third year with a “down to the wire at the last minute” funding gap for essential services, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was still $46 million short for its 2011 budget, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today as it began its annual consideration of that Agency’s work.

The Sixth Committee (Legal) today turned its focus from the second group of topics within the International Law Commission report to the third group, and heard from Special Rapporteurs on the “expulsion of aliens” and the “protection of persons in the event of disasters” that the development of international legal instruments on these matters was both timely and relevant.

The planet would suffer irreversible damage if “business as usual” continued, Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs warned today as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) began its consideration of sustainable development.

In a late diplomatic development today in the Disarmament Committee, a key sponsor of a draft resolution that would have had the General Assembly call upon the Conference on Disarmament to set a programme of work during its 2012 session to enable the immediate start of negotiations, did not press that text to a vote, in order, he said, to “preserve the integrity and strength” of the proposal.

Cooperatives — member-driven business enterprises that put people front and centre — offered a viable and vibrant alternative economic model, General Assembly delegates said this afternoon, as the United Nations launched the 2012 International Year of Cooperatives.

The Security Council today stressed the importance of promoting and protecting the human rights of women and girls, as well as increasing women’s participation in conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding, as it reviewed progress on implementation of its landmark resolution 1325 (2000) on Women and Peace and Security.