Meetings Coverage

Calling for urgent and concerted action to end months of violence in Syria, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said the international community had failed the Syrian people, particularly the many innocent civilians trapped in the war-wracked cities Homs and Hama, where the Government was stepping up its systematic “atrocious assault”.

To ensure Government funding for women’s empowerment and gender equality, budget-makers must call on all ministries to identify their top gender-related priorities and teach staff how to mainstream them into sectoral budgets, State finance officials told the Commission on the Status of Women today, as it held an interactive panel discussion on that subject.

Adopting its 2012 draft report, the Special Committee charged with examining suggestions and proposals regarding the Charter of the United Nations and strengthening the world body’s role in promoting international law concluded its regular session today, forwarding its recommendations to the General Assembly.

Reporting the peaceful celebration of the first anniversary of the start of Libya’s revolution and progress in the country on elections, security, human rights and humanitarian concerns, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Libya presented a hopeful picture of Libya’s future to the Security Council this morning.

Expressing deep concern about piracy and armed robbery at sea in Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, the Security Council this morning urged States of the region to act with dispatch to counter the scourge at the national and regional levels, encouraging international partners to provide support for regional patrols, coordination centres and the implementation of a region-wide strategy.

“Crystal clear” priorities – many of which would require major shifts in the attitudes of world leaders - began to take shape in the Commission on the Status of Women today, with senior-level Government officials calling for innovative strategies to improve the health of rural women, protect their rights and facilitate their engagement in economic and public life.

The Security Council, recalling its decision of 22 December 2010 to establish an International Residual Mechanism to “continue the functions” of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in anticipation of completion of the courts’ work, this morning appointed the Prosecutor of the “Mechanism”, to begin his four-year term tomorrow, 1 March.

The United Nations top political official told the Security Council this morning that the talks that had started between Israelis and Palestinians in Amman, Jordan, on 3 January had, unfortunately, “stalled”. “So far, prospects for the resumption of direct bilateral negotiations remain dim,” B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said in his monthly briefing on the Middle East.

The use of microcredit had financially empowered millions of impoverished women in rural areas around the world, but had not been enough to improve their economic lot, a senior official of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) told the Commission on the Status of Women today as it held a panel discussion on “Economic Empowerment of Rural Women”.