Meetings Coverage

Commending the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), as its mandate expires this month, the Security Council this morning called on donors to assist the Governments of the two countries of the Mission’s former area of operation to fulfil their increased responsibility in protecting civilians there.

Noting with concern that terrorism continued to pose a serious threat to international peace and security and underscoring the central role of the United Nations in that global fight, the Security Council today decided that the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) would continue to operate as a special political mission under the policy guidance of the Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee for another three years, through 31 December 2013.

Condemning in the strongest possible terms the attempts to usurp the will of the people and undermine the integrity of the electoral process, the Security Council this morning renewed the mandate of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) until 30 June 2011 and urged all parties to respect the will of the people and the election outcome in view of the recognition by ECOWAS and the African Union of Alassane Ouattara as the newly elected President of Côte d’Ivoire.

The outgoing members of the Security Council — Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda — delivered briefings this morning on the work of subsidiary bodies they had chaired during their two-year tenure.

The General Assembly today adopted landmark draft resolutions setting forth strategies to protect coral reefs and mitigate the ill effects of chemical munitions dumped at sea, while declaring international years and decades for the promotion of sustainable energy, water cooperation and biodiversity.

The international community must apply innovative thinking to reduce tensions generated by critical election processes in West Africa, Said Djinnit, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the United Nations Office in the subregion told the Security Council today.

The Security Council today renewed for 12 months its arms embargo on Liberia and its travel ban on persons deemed threatening to the country’s peace process.

“Women now are watching and waiting,” Margot Wallström, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, told the Security Council today as it concluded its debate on that subject. Pledging not to rest until sexual violence in conflict situations had been eliminated, she said that, with the Council’s unanimous adoption of resolution 1960 (2010) yesterday, the tools to end it were available and now they must be used.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) met today to consider the financial implications of a General Assembly high-level meeting on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases slated for September 2011.

The Preparatory Committee for the upcoming Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries held an organizational session today to assess preparations thus far for the event and to encourage delegates to give their input on the structure and themes of the Conference’s eventual outcome document.