Meetings Coverage

High-level officials from the United States, the United Kingdom, France and other Member States converged on the Security Council today to press for the adoption of a draft resolution that would support a plan by the League of Arab States to stem the bloodshed in Syria, and which calls on the country’s President to step aside as part of a democratic transition process.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today continued its careful scrutiny of applicants seeking consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, adding 37 new organizations to the more than 3,500 NGOs admitted since the Committee’s launch in 1946, while postponing consideration of 43 new applications pending responses to questions posed by Committee members.

The new Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission pledged today that he would pursue “the path of inclusion” throughout 2012 to enhance the six-year-old body’s ability to mobilize resources and align key actors in assisting the populations of countries emerging from conflict.

Opening its regular session for 2012, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, which is responsible for vetting applications seeking consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, today recommended special consultative status for 47 organizations, all but three of which were based in countries in the global South.

The international community must continue supporting the security and recovery priorities already identified by the Government of Côte d’Ivoire, as “remarkable progress” was being made towards restoring normalcy since the end of the violent post-election crisis last year, the Secretary-General’s representative told the Security Council this morning.

A spike in weapons proliferation, organized crime and terrorism — compounded by a massive influx of migrants returning from Libya — was exerting pressure on already-struggling countries across the Sahel region, the Security Council heard today as the senior United Nations political official briefed members on peace and security in Africa.

Recognizing that the role of diamonds in fuelling armed conflict remained a matter of serious international concern, with a devastating effect on affected countries, the General Assembly this afternoon reaffirmed its strong and continuing support for the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which aimed to eliminate conflict diamonds from the legitimate trade.

Faced with growing public frustration, armed clashes, diverse brigades, tight electoral schedules and proliferation of weapons, the Libyan authorities must be given “the space to address internal priorities” of the moment rather than the longer-term planning requested by international actors, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the country told the Security Council today.

Despite continuing tensions on the ground, preparatory meetings in Jordan between the Israelis and Palestinians presented an important opportunity for lasting peace that must be seized, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, ahead of a day-long debate involving some 45 speakers.

The United Nations Disarmament Commission, in an organizational meeting today, elected Enrique Roman-Morey of Peru as Chairman of its upcoming three-week substantive session — slated to run from 2 to 20 April — as consensus on its provisional agenda remained elusive.