Meetings Coverage

As pirates tightened their grip in the waters off the Somali coast and surrounding Indian Ocean, the Secretary-General’s top adviser on the legal issues related to that menace proposed a series of far-reaching measures to the Security Council today on how to lift the legal constraints to prosecute and imprison the pirates and criminalize their sea-borne raids in all States.

The ninth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests continued today with resounding calls for the empowerment of local communities — including indigenous and other vulnerable groups — to participate in forest governance.

As the United Nations Forum on Forests began its ninth session today, the world body’s top development official stressed the need for a people-centred approach to managing forest lands, which would take into account not only their environmental riches but also their economic, social and cultural value.

Stressing that institution-building was a critical part of peacebuilding in countries emerging from conflict, the Security Council acknowledged today the need to continue improving its support for those countries in order to sustain peace by creating national bodies that would promote democratic processes and socio-economic development.

“As we enter a new year, I am very concerned at the lack of progress towards peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.

Member States must work with all parties in Haiti to help steer the electoral process towards a credible outcome, amid widespread accusations of fraud, so that it did not distract from earthquake-recovery efforts, Alain Le Roy, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations told the Security Council today.

Expressing deep concern over the continuing violence and human rights violations in Côte d’Ivoire, including against United Nations peacekeepers and civilians, as the post-election crisis continued, the Security Council today authorized the deployment of an additional 2,000 troops for the United Nations Operation in the country, known as UNOCI, until 30 June 2011.

Despite the international community’s recent efforts to resume stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, negotiations were still deadlocked and the goal of reaching a framework agreement on final-status issues remained elusive, B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said today.

The conduct of the referendum in Southern Sudan had been timely, fair, peaceful and credible in a way that no one could have predicted just a few months ago, Benjamin Mkapa, Chair of the Secretary-General’s Panel on the Referenda in the Sudan, said this morning as the Security Council heard briefings on the event, which took place between 9 and 15 January.

This year would be an important one for the United Nations and its work around the world, and the Economic and Social Council would be an important actor in addressing the eight strategic opportunities identified by the Secretary-General as capable of reaping the greatest gains, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said today.