Security Council: No name

Demanding an immediate end to the surge in violence against civilians in Côte d’Ivoire, the Security Council this evening imposed targeted sanctions against recalcitrant former President Laurent Gbagbo and his close associates, while reaffirming the mandate of the United Nations mission there to protect civilians, including to prevent the use of heavy weaponry against them.

The Committee established to monitor sanctions recently imposed on Libya is now “fully operational”, its Chairman, José Filipe Moraes Cabral of Portugal, told the Security Council this afternoon, stressing the need for Member States to fully engage with the Committee to make the sanctions regime effective.

On 25 March 2011, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1970 (2011) concerning the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya met in informal consultations, followed by its first meeting.

The deteriorating security situation in Côte d’Ivoire has had a serious toll on the lives of the West African country’s people, Atul Khare, Assistant-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told the Security Council today as he conveyed the request of regional leaders for more stringent measures against recalcitrant former President Laurent Gbagbo.

Delivering a briefing today on the critical situation in Libya following the Security Council’s imposition of a no-fly zone on the country, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the international community must “continue to act with speed and decision” to save civilian lives.

On 23 March 2011, the Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee approved the addition of the entry specified below to its Consolidated List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1904 (2009) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

With continued strong international support to help Sierra Leone overcome critical challenges such as youth unemployment and vulnerability to shocks, the country’s emergence from a brutal civil war could have a “ripple effect” on other troubled countries in Africa, the Executive Representative of the Secretary-General told the Security Council this morning.

While they praised the overall efforts of Peacebuilding Commission to meet its mandated objectives as a platform for galvanizing action and aligning long-term support for post-conflict countries, members of the Security Council today acknowledged the 5-year-old body’s growing pains, as it endeavoured to meet the extremely high expectations placed on it, increase its visibility in the field and strengthen interaction with other actors in and outside the United Nations.

The incoming Chair of the Committee established to monitor sanctions on Iran related to its nuclear programme reported two new cases of alleged violations of those sanctions as he gave his first 90-day report to the Security Council this afternoon, the seventeenth such report since the Committee’s establishment.

The following statement by the Chairman of the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict was issued in New York, 22 March: