Security Council: Meetings Coverage

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.

As it began a two-day open debate on women and peace and security, the Security Council today requested the Secretary-General to supply it with detailed information on parties credibly suspected of responsibility for patterns of sexual violence during armed conflict.

Welcoming the conclusion of a peaceful registration process for the Southern Sudan referendum planned for 9 January 2011, the Security Council today urged the parties to the peace process there to fulfil their remaining commitments, quickly reach agreement on outstanding issues and maintain peace and human rights, no matter what the outcome.

Welcoming Burundi’s progress towards peace, stability and development and emphasizing the need for the United Nations system and the international community to maintain their support for peace consolidation and long-term development in the country, the Security Council today requested the Secretary-General to establish the United Nations Office in Burundi, as a significantly scaled-down United Nations presence, for an initial period of 12 months, beginning on 1 January 2011.

Recognizing that major changes had occurred in Iraq since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the Security Council today returned control of mineral exports to that country’s Government, ended the oil-for-food programme and lifted restrictions on programmes for the development of nuclear energy.

The United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) would “lower its flag” at the end of December and start liquidation on 1 January 2011, Youssef Mahmoud, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of Mission told the Security Council today.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders should focus with urgency in the coming year on the essential elements of a “negotiated two-State endgame, for the benefit of both peoples”, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council this morning. “The parties have set for themselves important timelines that have received strong international endorsement and 2011 is the year in which these are to be met,” Robert Serry told the Council.

The Security Council, while urging the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to take all possible measures to complete its work expeditiously, today allowed three of its judges to serve beyond the expiry of their term of office so they could complete work on cases in which they were involved.

Urging the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to take all possible measures to complete its work, the Security Council today allowed two judges to serve beyond the expiry of their term of office to enable them to complete work on cases in which they were involved.