Meetings Coverage

In the Middle East over the past month there had been several important developments on the ground as well as continued international efforts to create the conditions for the “prompt resumption and early conclusion of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations”, a top United Nations official told the Security Council this morning.

The General Assembly today decided to hold on 24 September 2009 a high-level meeting to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Wrapping up the forty-fourth session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this afternoon, Committee Chairperson Naela Gabr, expert from Egypt, noted that the Committee had adopted decisions on three cases under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and it had continued discussions on the draft general recommendation on article 2 of the Convention related to policy measures.

Parties to armed conflict continued to use sexual violence with efficient brutality, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council today as it held a day-long debate on the agenda item “Women and peace and security”.

The Security Council, reiterating its support to the people and Government of Iraq in their efforts “to build a secure, stable, federal, united and democratic nation, based on the rule of law and respect for human rights”, today extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in that country for another year.

Seeking to determine the future direction of peacekeeping at a time of growing complexity in United Nations operations, coupled with growing demand and scarce resources, the Security Council today continued its discussion of practical steps to “improve the preparation, planning, monitoring and evaluation, and completion” of peacekeeping missions.

With “a new sense of optimism and energy spreading” among the Iraqi people, as the overall level of violence in their country began to decrease and as “promising moves” towards political reconciliation got under way, the newly appointed United Nations envoy told the Security Council today that the world body’s peacekeeping Mission in Iraq should begin expanding its focus to economic recovery, social development and political stabilization.

Parties to armed conflict engaging in patterns of “killing and maiming of children and/or rape and other sexual violence against children” must also be listed in the Secretary-General’s reports on children in armed conflict, according to resolution 1882 (2009), adopted unanimously by the Security Council today.

Experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today recognized the legislative and policy efforts of Guinea-Bissau, a least developed sub-Saharan African nation, to erase gender discrimination and improve the lot of women, but expressed concern over the country’s slow pace in removing discriminatory laws from its books, and the traditional bias that held sway in many areas.

The General Assembly today decided to establish an ad hoc open-ended working group to follow up on issues described in the outcome document of the conference on the impact of the world financial and economic crisis on development and report to the world body before the end of its sixty-fourth session.