Security Council

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.

The Security Council voted unanimously this morning to extend the mandate of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) for one year, demanding that parties to the conflict in the western Sudanese province immediately put an end to the violence, including attacks on civilians, peacekeepers and humanitarian personnel.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI), and its authorization of the French forces which support the Operation, until 31 January 2010, in support of the long-postponed presidential elections in that West African country.

“If not now, then when? If the Council does not act, then who will?” asked Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia, today as he called on the international community to take immediate action to stabilize the situation in that country.

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.

Once fully deployed, the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) would be sure to make a difference, the top United Nations official on the ground told the Security Council today.

Taking up the situation in the Middle East, speakers in today’s Security Council debate welcomed the new international push to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although concern over the lack of movement since the adoption of resolution 1860 (2009) more than six months ago prompted some to call for more decisive Council action.

Five years after the Security Council had placed the situation in Sudan’s war‑ravaged western Darfur region on its agenda, the top United Nations peacekeeping official today expressed his deep frustration that everyone -- the Government, the rebel movements and the international community –- had failed to muster the political will to address the crisis “in all its heart-wrenching complexity”.

Describing a “mixed picture of worrying signs amid solid progress”, the top United Nations envoy in Côte d’Ivoire today informed the Security Council that, even though the long-postponed presidential election in the divided West African country was set for 29 November, the panel organizing the poll was struggling to overcome bureaucratic hurdles, and the linked reunification process was not moving forward as planned.