Meetings Coverage

As the Special Committee on Decolonization took up the question of Gibraltar this morning, the representative of Spain opposed any attempt to remove it from the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories undergoing decolonization, and reiterated the Spanish Government’s wish to renew “conversations” with the United Kingdom on the future of Gibraltar.

In the Security Council this morning, the head of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL) called for international support for the United Nations unified post-conflict strategy in the country, while he praised its political leadership for an agreement that he said kept recent political violence from spiralling out of control.

The United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine this afternoon heard presentations of four experts, including Israeli and Palestinian, on the theme “International efforts aimed at achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the question of Palestine”.

“Our shared challenge is to begin implementing transformative changes on the ground and to create irreversible momentum towards an Israeli-Palestinian agreement,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today in a statement at the opening of the United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine.

Acting by consensus as it began its resumed 2009 session this morning, the Special Committee on Decolonization approved three draft resolutions, on dissemination of decolonization information; the question of sending visiting and special missions to Non-Self-Governing Territories; and on information from those Territories transmitted under Article 73 e of the United Nations Charter.

The Sudan had a responsibility under the United Nations Charter to arrest President Omer al-Bashir and other Sudanese citizens charged with crimes in the violence-wracked Darfur region, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, told the Security Council today.

Following up the adoption of Security Council resolution 1872 (2009) last week, which authorized the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to carry out its existing mandate until 31 January 2010, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took up the Secretary-General’s request for commitment authority to continue the provision of a logistical support package for the Mission, along with the continuation of technical and expert advice to the Union.

Speakers in the Security Council today called on the International Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda to continue to expedite the completion of all cases still on their dockets, while stressing the need for optimal mechanisms to take care of all residual tasks as their completion deadlines loomed.

The Fifth Community (Administrative and Budgetary) this afternoon took up the proposed $68.28 million budget for the United Nations Logistics Base in Brindisi, whose role is expected to expand significantly in the financial year beginning 1 July.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up financing of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), representatives of Serbia and Russian Federation questioned a proposed 76.2 per cent reduction in the budget of the Mission, which reflected a drawdown in personnel from an approved strength of 4,911 in 2008/09 to a proposed strength of 507 for 2009/10.