Meetings Coverage

The twentieth Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea opened today with a call for universal accession to that treaty, the election of several members of its Bureau and the adoption of the session’s provisional agenda.

An integrated approach to stability in Sudan, linking peace in Darfur to preparations for the January referendum on the future of Southern Sudan, was presented to the Security Council by officials of the United Nations and the African Union this morning.

“The global scourge from the illicit trade in small arms and ammunition continues to wreak havoc” and was highly destabilizing, impacting upon security and development in literally all regions of the world, Sergio Duarte, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, said today at the opening of the Fourth Biennial Meeting of States on combating the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.

The arrest of two prominent Sudanese citizens indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity was crucial for bringing peace to Darfur and ending impunity, Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the Security Council today.

The General Assembly this morning elected Joseph Deiss, a former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Switzerland who led his country’s accession to the United Nations in 2002, as President of its sixty-fifth session.

Expressing deep concern about Iran’s lack of compliance with its previous resolutions on ensuring the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme, the Security Council imposed additional sanctions on the country today, expanding an arms embargo and tightening restrictions on financial and shipping enterprises related to “proliferation-sensitive activities”.

Israel needed to change its aggressive stance towards the Palestinians or face the possibility of a catastrophic outcome in the future, Edward Peck, a former United States ambassador to Mauritania and Iraq, told the Palestinian Rights Committee today.

Following a day-long debate on implementing the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the follow-up 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, the General Assembly this afternoon adopted by consensus a draft decision to take note of the Secretary-General’s recommendations on the matter, use the report to inform a high-level plenary meeting on the Millennium Development Goals in September, and hold consultations by December to pave the way for a comprehensive HIV/AIDS review next year.

The Security Council this morning extended the mandate of the Panel of Experts monitoring sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea until 12 June 2011. Acting under the binding Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 1928 (2010) maintaining the current mandate of the group that it established on 12 June 2009, when the body also condemned a nuclear weapons test conducted by the east Asian country and toughened the sanctions regime on it.

Concerned by the “new challenges and threats” the Government and people of Haiti faced in the aftermath of the devastating 12 January earthquake, the Security Council today authorized deployment of further 680 police to the United Nations peacekeeping mission there, in addition to the boosted force levels provided in January chiefly to assist Haitian authorities throughout the coming electoral period and subsequent transfer of power early next year.