Stemming violence, boosting aid and building local capacity remained critical for the populations of Chad and Sudan, John Holmes, Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said today at Headquarters following his return from a mission to the two African countries.

The diplomat overseeing negotiations on reforming the United Nations Security Council said today that since Member States finally had a text reflecting “all positions”, he was optimistic that talks on the issue would be more focused and the nettlesome process, ongoing for more than 15 years, could finally be concluded.

The Secretary-General has arrived in South Africa, at the start of his second trip to the continent this month. He will meet President Jacob Zuma of South Africa for bilateral talks. Very early on Wednesday morning, the Secretary-General will fly to Bujumbura for an official visit to Burundi. He will meet the President, Pierre Nkurunziza, and other officials.

The Secretary-General arrived in Washington, D.C. last night and this morning delivered the opening address at the “Women Deliver” 2010 Conference. That Conference brings together 3,500 participants from 140 countries, in what the organizers describe as the largest ever conference on maternal health. “When we work together, we succeed,” he told the Conference.

The world had already consumed 90 per cent of the global stock of large fish on the high seas — a third of it caught by illegal, unregulated and unreported vessels, according to marine experts and legal scholars who spoke at a Headquarters press conference today as the United Nations kicked off the second annual World Oceans Day.

The head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS said today that, while the number of people in low- and middle-income countries that had gained access to antiretroviral therapy had increased by 10-fold in the past five years, a “prevention revolution” was needed to ensure more targeted prevention measures and provide broader access to treatment — especially for women and at-risk groups.

The Security Council this morning adopted a resolution increasing sanctions on Iran, by a vote of 12 in favour, 2 against, which were Brazil and Turkey, and 1 abstention, which was Lebanon. In the resolution, the Council affirms that Iran has so far failed to meet the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors.

The Secretary-General arrived in Yaoundé, Cameroon, around midnight from Burundi, and he has another full programme today on the latest leg of his second Africa trip this month. He has already held talks with President Paul Biya and he is scheduled to visit a project site at Mbalmayo outside Yaoundé.

With more than 13,000 police officers serving in peacekeeping operations — from Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region to earthquake-ravaged Haiti — the world body aimed to boost the number of women officers to 20 per cent by 2014 while strengthening training programmes to better prepare recruits to handle complex post-conflict and post-disaster situations, United Nations Police Adviser Ann-Marie Orler said at Headquarters today.

Specific means of tracing small conventional arms and eradicating the illicit cross-border trade in them will be the focus of a Headquarters meeting next week, its designated Chairperson told correspondents at Headquarters this afternoon. Pablo Macedo of Mexico told journalists that the Fourth Biennial Meeting of States on Small Arms and Light Weapons, to be held 14-18 June, will review implementation of the 2001 Programme of Action on the illicit trade of those armaments.