Meetings Coverage

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.

Acting on the recommendation of its General Committee, the General Assembly today decided to include on the agenda of its current session an item on the “appointment of the Secretary-General of the United Nations”, paving the way for the 192-member body to take up that issue before the expiration of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s first term of office on 31 December.

As the States parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea continued their annual session today, delegates expressed diverging views on the workload of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, hearing a presentation by the Coordinator of the Working Group established in 2009 to address that body’s burgeoning responsibilities.

Citing many examples of real progress around the world that testified to the soundness of the “people-first” approach embodied in the Millennium Development Goals, senior United Nations officials today said that, with the 2015 deadline for achieving those ambitious targets rapidly approaching, stakeholders must not be afraid to “think big” in shaping the final push, even as they planned strategies to alleviate the suffering of millions “who will need our attention come 2016 and beyond”.