Meetings Coverage

Northern and Southern Sudan today signed an agreement to pull their troops out of the disputed central Abyei region, scene of fierce fighting over the past few weeks, African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki announced as he urged the Security Council to move quickly to ensure implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the two sides.

The Palestinian Rights Committee this morning approved the agenda of its upcoming Brussels meeting on advancing the Middle East peace process, as it also heard reports on previous international meetings, as well as on unemployment and access restrictions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Bearing in mind that 25 July marked the 113th anniversary of the intervention in Puerto Rico by the United States, the Special Committee on Decolonization today adopted a consensus text calling on the United States to expedite a process that would allow Puerto Ricans to fully exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence, in line with General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) (1960).

Concluding its annual session today, the twenty-first Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea decided to link future adjustments to the annual base salary for members of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to those of the judges of the International Court of Justice.

Recognizing that some members of the Taliban in Afghanistan had rejected the terrorist ideology of Al-Qaida and joined in the Government reconciliation process, the Security Council this afternoon decided to separate the sanctions regime on the two groups, as it created an additional mechanism to manage the new regime and extended existing ones for an additional 18 months.

Five years after the creation of the Human Rights Council as the United Nations’ key forum for tackling entrenched human rights concerns around the world, the General Assembly today decided to maintain the 47-member body’s status as one of its subsidiary organs, concluding a year-long review of its work and functioning within the Organization, carried out in Geneva and New York.

The twenty-first Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea today asked the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to consider meeting in New York, simultaneously with its subcommissions, for up to six months annually over the next five years, and recommended that any request for Secretariat resources to facilitate more working weeks be presented to the General Assembly during its sixty-sixth session.

Having finished its work on 24 May, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today concluded its 2011 resumed session, adopting by consensus its report, which contained seven draft decisions on matters that called for action by the Economic and Social Council.

At the midpoint of its annual session, the States parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea today elected six members to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, but failed to fill one additional seat, forcing a second day of voting tomorrow.

The African Union will never hide from its responsibilities in helping resolve the conflict in Libya and the “time was overdue to articulate a solution together” that would protect civilians, ensure a democratic transformation and promote lasting peace, the representative of a high-level panel from the organization told the Security Council today.