Meetings Coverage

Demanding an immediate ceasefire in Libya, including an end to the current attacks against civilians, which it said might constitute “crimes against humanity”, the Security Council this evening imposed a ban on all flights in the country’s airspace — a no-fly zone — and tightened sanctions on the Qadhafi regime and its supporters.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan called for full international support to the planned transition to Afghan responsibility for security, governance and development in the troubled country as he addressed the Security Council this morning during a debate on that situation.

In order to facilitate what it called urgently needed humanitarian assistance in Somalia, the Security Council decided this morning to ease its assets freeze on the beleaguered Horn of Africa nation for 16 months.

While Serbia had made gains in reforming its judiciary, advancing minority participation in public affairs and generally fostering a “spirit of tolerance and inter-cultural dialogue”, the Government was aware of the challenges it faced in advancing civil and political rights, especially given the enduring legacy of conflict in the region, top officials told the Human Rights Committee today as its experts considered the country’s second periodic report.

Following protests across the Occupied Palestinian Territory in recent weeks, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had announced his intention to establish a unity Government and to conduct elections within six months, said a representative of Palestine at United Nations Headquarters today.

With the election process gearing up and refugees flooding in from neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire, the increasingly complex situation in Liberia required sustained international attention, even though progress continued, Ellen Margrethe Løj, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, said today in a briefing to the Security Council.

With its legislative, institutional and procedural mechanisms for protecting human rights meeting the highest European standards, Slovakia had made significant progress in implementing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Human Rights Committee heard today.

Warning that the past century’s heedless resource consumption had left the world at an uncertain crossroads, senior United Nations officials and Government leaders today challenged the international community to define and urgently implement a practical, twenty-first century development model that could “connect the dots between the key issues of our time” — climate change, population growth, poverty and environmental stress — and build a resilient, sustainable future.

Commending the Government of Togo for having abolished the death penalty and adopted a press code, experts of the Human Rights Committee expressed concern today at the number of draft laws awaiting passage in the National Assembly, especially a draft Criminal Code, and urged their adoption as soon as possible to prevent the perception that a lack of political will was interfering with much needed reform.

The General Assembly this afternoon, reopening consideration of its agenda item relating to the world social situation and to youth, ageing and disabled persons and the family, decided to hold a two-day high-level meeting on youth at Headquarters in New York on 25 and 26 July based on the overarching theme of dialogue and mutual understanding.