Security Council: Meetings Coverage

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Liberia for one year, until 30 September 2011, authorizing it to focus on elections, security and other issues key to the Mission’s future drawdown.

The current strength of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, augmented after the devastating earthquake, should be maintained at least through the elections and the formation of a new Government, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council this morning.

In a vote held simultaneously with the General Assembly, the Security Council today elected Joan E. Donoghue of the United States, by secret ballot, to the International Court of Justice to fill the remainder of the term left vacant by the resignation of Judge Thomas Buergenthal of the United States (see documents S/2010/442 and S/2010/443). She will serve until 5 February 2015.

Liberia had made “tremendous progress” since the end of its devastating civil war, but would require international assistance to keep making progress in the foreseeable future, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council this morning.

While the primary responsibility for the protection of civilians and for preventing the mass rapes that occurred in August in the Democratic Republic of the Congo lay with the State, failures could be traced to the peacekeeping mission there as well, the head of an investigative mission on the incidents told the Security Council in a briefing this afternoon.

The hard decisions needed to take Nepal’s peace process forward lay firmly in the hands of the Himalayan country’s leaders, and were beyond the mandate and capacity of the United Nations Mission there, known as UNMIN, the Secretary-General’s representative told the Security Council this morning.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for one year, calling strongly on all parties to respect the Blue Line, the cessation of hostilities and relevant resolutions in the wake of recent violent incidents.

Avowing that more effective legal prosecution of Somalia coast pirates would help deter future attacks and strengthen the rule of law, the Security Council today stressed the importance of finding a long-term solution to the problem of such prosecution and imprisonment and voiced its support for the appointment of a Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the issue, during a debate that heard from some 30 speakers.

“We are nearing a turning point in the efforts to promote direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians,” Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco told the Security Council today, expressing the United Nations conviction that direct and meaningful talks was the only avenue to a comprehensive, sustainable solution to the decades-old conflict.

The Government of Chad had made significant strides towards assuming its responsibilities in civilian protection, but the sustainability of its specialized forces, as well as security in the north-east Central African Republic needed urgent attention as peacekeepers withdrew, a top United Nations official told the Security Council today.