Meetings Coverage

Transparency, synergy, and cooperation were vital to the working methods of the 2140 Committee on Yemen, the Security Council heard today during a presentation of the body’s second report.

Weak institutions, cyclical environmental shocks, vast ungoverned spaces, fragile economies and poverty had contributed to suffering and created conditions for transnational criminal organizations in the Sahel, the Security Council heard today, as the Secretary‑General’s Special Envoy for the region said the need for sustaining the 15-member body’s attention there was “greater than ever”.

Highlighting the role of the Sixth Committee (Legal) in promoting justice and international law, the General Assembly today, without a vote, adopted 17 resolutions and took two decisions recommended in 19 reports from the Committee.

When the Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda 20 years ago, on the heels of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia the previous year, the landscape of international criminal law was altered forever, members heard today as they reviewed developments.

In a presidential statement adopted today, the Security Council expressed concern at the grave security situation in parts of Central Africa within the remit of the United Nations Regional Office there, in particular, the ongoing crisis in the Central African Republic and its regional impact, the continuing threat of the Lord’s Resistance Army, and the expansion of Boko Haram terrorist activities into countries in the subregion.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today scrutinized how exchange rate fluctuations and inflation had impacted the United Nations expenditures, developed nations pushed for reform of “recosting”, the method of factoring in those elements to subsequently revise an initial budget, while developing countries rejected any changes.

The five outgoing members of the Security Council — the Republic of Korea, Australia, Argentina, Luxembourg and Rwanda — delivered briefings to the Security Council this afternoon on the work of the subsidiary bodies they had chaired during their two-year tenure.

The Security Council today renewed sanctions measures on Liberia for a further nine months, while recognizing the impact of the Ebola outbreak on peace and security as a factor for future decisions to modify or lift the restrictions.

Delving into issues ranging from deep sea mining and continental shelf limits to pollution, piracy and plastic waste floating at the surface, the General Assembly today adopted, without a vote, a resolution on sustainable fisheries and deferred taking action on a draft text on oceans and the Law of the Sea, as more than 30 speakers and the heads of two of the world’s ocean and sea authorities weighed in on the instruments governing those domains.

Although the situation in the Central African Republic remained volatile following the recent violence in Bangui, the political process was once again moving forward, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council this morning.