Security Council

The Security Council this morning extended the mandate of the Panel of Experts monitoring sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea until 12 June 2011. Acting under the binding Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 1928 (2010) maintaining the current mandate of the group that it established on 12 June 2009, when the body also condemned a nuclear weapons test conducted by the east Asian country and toughened the sanctions regime on it.

On 4 June 2010, the Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee approved the deletion (de-listing) of the entry specified below from its Consolidated List. The Committee approved this de-listing following its review of the name, as called for in paragraph 25 of Security Council resolution 1822 (2008). The assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1904 (2009) therefore no longer apply to the following individual:

Concerned by the “new challenges and threats” the Government and people of Haiti faced in the aftermath of the devastating 12 January earthquake, the Security Council today authorized deployment of further 680 police to the United Nations peacekeeping mission there, in addition to the boosted force levels provided in January chiefly to assist Haitian authorities throughout the coming electoral period and subsequent transfer of power early next year.

The following Security Council press statement on Iraq Election Certification was read out today by Council President Claude Heller (Mexico):

After yet another attempt to organize national elections in Côte d’Ivoire had come up short, the main Ivorian political factions were sticking to their “core interests”, the top United Nations official there told the Security Council today, as he warned that competing priorities over the oft-postponed ballot, reunification and citizen identification had left the divided country at a “complex […] delicate impasse”.

Meeting this morning to consider a vacancy on the International Criminal Court of Justice, the Security Council set 9 September 2010 as the date for the election to fill it.

Children and armed conflict, justice and the rule of law, and the situation in Sudan were among the major areas to be considered by the Security Council during Mexico’s presidency in June, Claude Heller, that country’s Permanent Representative, said at a Headquarters press conference today.

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, the Security Council expressed deep regret at the loss of life and injuries resulting from the use of force during the Israeli military operation early on Monday in international waters against the convoy sailing to Gaza, and condemned those acts which had killed at least 10 civilians and wounded many more.

Extending the mandate of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) until 30 June 2010 today, the Security Council also decided that from 1 July it would bear the title “United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO)”, in view of the new phase reached in the country.

The Security Council today decided to extend the mandate of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) until 30 June 2010, in its current configuration pending consideration of recommendations for its revision.