Meetings Coverage

The outgoing members of the Security Council — Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Gabon, Lebanon and Nigeria — delivered briefings this morning on the work of the subsidiary bodies they had chaired during their two-year tenure.

The Security Council today, determining that, despite significant progress, the situation in Liberia remained a threat to international peace and security in the region, renewed for 12 months its travel ban on persons deemed to be a threat to the peace in Liberia and arms embargo, modified in previous resolutions to allow the Liberian Government, as well as the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country, to receive certain military materiel.

The positive dynamic initiated between the Government of the Central African Republic and politico-military groups offered “a real chance for peace”, but several obstacles risked blocking that process and could ultimately result in another cycle of generalized conflict, triggering serious repercussions in the subregion, the United Nations top official in that country told the Security Council this afternoon.

Recognizing the urgent need for Sudan and South Sudan to commence the process of border normalization and that the situation in that area constituted a threat to international peace and security, the Security Council today decided to broaden the mandate of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei to include assistance in that process, including supporting the development of effective bilateral management mechanisms, facilitating liaisons and building mutual trust.

Welcoming the encouraging progress made so far in the fully fledged negotiations on Cyprus, as well as the prospect of further decisive progress in the coming months towards a comprehensive and durable settlement resulting from those talks, the Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for a further period ending 19 July 2012.

Humanitarian assistance must be scaled up and made “smarter” as global emergencies continued to expand in both frequency and complexity, delegates in the General Assembly stressed today during their annual debate on the coordination of disaster relief efforts.

The Security Council, meeting concurrently with but independently of the General Assembly, today elected Julia Sebutinde of Uganda as the fifth Judge of the International Court of Justice.

Deeming the present juncture in Somalia as crucial for the international community, the country’s people and the region’s stability, the Secretary-General told the Security Council today: “We finally face a moment of fresh opportunities. We must seize it.”

The General Assembly today elected Julia Sebutinde of Uganda to a much-contested seat on the International Court of Justice, ending a weeks-long stalemate between the Assembly and the Security Council. Following a single ballot — which brought to 12 the total number of voting rounds in the Assembly — Ms. Sebutinde received in both organs the absolute majority required to clinch the fifth and final vacant seat on the Court.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took stock of the financing requirements for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, as it heard Secretariat officials shed light on progress in completing the Tribunals’ work and preparing their transfer to residual mechanisms.