Security Council: Meetings Coverage

Despite progress in consolidating stability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, international support must be maintained to end violence against civilians and facilitate upcoming elections, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in that country told the Security Council in a briefing today.

While early indications of a week’s worth of balloting pointed to an overwhelming vote in favour of Southern Sudan’s secession, senior United Nations officials expressed deep concern in the Security Council today over renewed violence in North and South Darfur, and issued a stern warning that violence remained an “ever present threat” in the disputed, oil-rich border area of Abyei, absent a permanent settlement of its status.

As pirates tightened their grip in the waters off the Somali coast and surrounding Indian Ocean, the Secretary-General’s top adviser on the legal issues related to that menace proposed a series of far-reaching measures to the Security Council today on how to lift the legal constraints to prosecute and imprison the pirates and criminalize their sea-borne raids in all States.

Stressing that institution-building was a critical part of peacebuilding in countries emerging from conflict, the Security Council acknowledged today the need to continue improving its support for those countries in order to sustain peace by creating national bodies that would promote democratic processes and socio-economic development.

Member States must work with all parties in Haiti to help steer the electoral process towards a credible outcome, amid widespread accusations of fraud, so that it did not distract from earthquake-recovery efforts, Alain Le Roy, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations told the Security Council today.

Despite the international community’s recent efforts to resume stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, negotiations were still deadlocked and the goal of reaching a framework agreement on final-status issues remained elusive, B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said today.

Expressing deep concern over the continuing violence and human rights violations in Côte d’Ivoire, including against United Nations peacekeepers and civilians, as the post-election crisis continued, the Security Council today authorized the deployment of an additional 2,000 troops for the United Nations Operation in the country, known as UNOCI, until 30 June 2011.

The conduct of the referendum in Southern Sudan had been timely, fair, peaceful and credible in a way that no one could have predicted just a few months ago, Benjamin Mkapa, Chair of the Secretary-General’s Panel on the Referenda in the Sudan, said this morning as the Security Council heard briefings on the event, which took place between 9 and 15 January.

Praising the appointment of Somalia’s new Cabinet in the Security Council today, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the strife-torn country called for international support to help its Transitional Federal Government consolidate the gains of the Djibouti Peace Agreement as the end of the transition period approached.

With the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) set to end its four-year mandate in the Himalayan country tomorrow at midnight, the Security Council reaffirmed its support for the peace process and called on the Nepalese caretaker Government and all political parties to “redouble their efforts to continue to work together in the sprit of consensus to fulfil the commitments they made in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and other agreements”.