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 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.

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.

On 13 December 2011, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) enacted the amendments specified with strikethrough and underline in the entries below on its Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1989 (2011) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

Following is a transcript of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s press conference, held in New York on 14 December:

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 following statement was issued on 13 December by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

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.

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 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.