Meetings Coverage

The head of the newly established United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa this morning called on the Security Council to provide ongoing support for its efforts to stem cross-border threats to security in the region such as piracy, illicit small arms traffic, rebel militias and massive refugee returns due to the instability in Libya.

The States parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea today opened its doors to fill a vacancy in the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, in the midst of that body’s annual session at Headquarters.

A complex amalgam in Somalia of accelerated political progress and the unexpected withdrawal of insurgents from the capital — amid a deadly famine devastating large swaths of the country — made increased international support to the nation urgent at this critical time, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council today. “This is an extraordinary moment for Somalia,” Augustine Mahiga said via video teleconference from Mogadishu.

Expressing “profound regret” over the many hundreds of deaths in Syria and condemning what it called widespread violations of human rights against civilians by Syrian authorities, the Security Council today called for an immediate end to violence in the Middle East country and urged all sides to act with utmost restraint.

The Security Council today tightened its sanctions regime on Somalia and Eritrea to include individuals and entities identified as political or military leaders recruiting or using child soldiers in Somalia’s armed conflicts, and targeting civilians or committing attacks against schools and hospitals in the conflict-torn Horn of Africa country.

As the General Assembly concluded its debate today on challenges to achieving the human right to water and sanitation in the context of the Millennium Development Goals, delegates shed light on their nations’ struggles to resolve the practical implications of that quest.

Expressing strong determination to support the peace process in Sudan’s troubled western region, as well as concern over worsening violence there, the Security Council today decided to extend the mandate of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) for another 12 months.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women concluded its work today by adopting observations and recommendations arising from its consideration of eight country reports that it took up during its forty-ninth session.

Despite ongoing clashes and shifting front lines, the five-month-old war between Government and opposition forces in Libya had basically stalled behind the posturing of both sides, and a ceasefire tied to transitional arrangements was still the only sustainable political solution to the crisis, the Security Council heard today.

Frustrated at operating procedures that had left the United Nations Conference on Disarmament vulnerable to “hostage-taking” by a single Member State, delegates addressing the General Assembly today debated options for reforming — or even abandoning — that “dysfunctional” body, while others countered that the 12-year impasse reflected the need to take a stand against a “clear pattern” of selective and discriminatory negotiations.