During the month of October, the Security Council would hold two open debates in which non-Council Member States could participate, respectively, on “women, peace and security” and on the situation in the Middle East, Council President Le Luong Minh, the Permanent Representative of Viet Nam, said today.
In progress at UNHQ
Security Council: Press Conference
For the first time in history, a President of the United States would chair a meeting of the Security Council, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations said at a Headquarters press conference today.
Ahead of the Security Council’s adoption of a groundbreaking resolution on children and armed conflict, the top United Nations official on the issue, Radhika Coomaraswamy, and Claude Heller, Permanent Representative of Mexico, today hailed the resolution as a major step forward in the fight against impunity for crimes against children.
The Security Council would meet this afternoon to adopt a resolution on children and armed conflict and it would renew by month’s end the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) set to expire on 31 August, John Sawers, Council President for August and the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, said today during a Headquarters news conference.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia, said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon that the Security Council was in closed-door meetings to discuss possible new sanctions against leaders of armed groups in Somalia, and perhaps Eritrea, and that tackling impunity was the next major concern in Somalia.
Karin Landgren, Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), said today that, although the peace process had stagnated to a degree, she hoped that party leaders would rise above their differences and work together pragmatically, through consensus and dialogue to advance the process, as they had done in the past.
While the activities of the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown were expected to end in October, the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor in The Hague, Netherlands, including appeals, was expected to run until February 2011, the Court’s Prosecutor, Stephen Rapp, said today at a Headquarters press conference.
The fight against terrorism, important as it was, must be conducted in conformity with the rule of law and the principles of due process, the Chairman of the Security Council’s Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee said at Headquarters today.
Pledging that the Security Council would carry out its work in as transparent a manner as possible during Uganda’s presidency, Ruhakana Rugunda, that country’s Permanent Representative, today highlighted the 15-nation body’s busy agenda for July, which would include open debates on Somalia and the Middle East, as well as a ministerial-level meeting on post-conflict peacebuilding.
The Security Council’s programme of work for June would include open debates on United Nations peacekeeping operations, protection of civilians in armed conflict, and Iraq, the last to be chaired by Turkey’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, that country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said at Headquarters today.