Wrapping up a two-day visit to Nepal, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe, said that the final months of the United Nations Mission in Nepal’s mandate represented “100 days of opportunity” before the peace process enters a new phase. Pascoe told journalists that priority should now be on the resolution of the Maoist integration and rehabilitation process.

The Security Council delegation to Uganda and Sudan began its day in El Fasher, meeting with the Wali of North Darfur. At the start of the meeting, the Council's leader for this part of the mission, United Kingdom Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, expressed the Security Council's concern over increased levels of violence, the protection of civilians, sexual violence and the illegal flow of weapons.

Economic diversification would reduce African reliance on natural resource revenues and encourage sustainable growth in telecommunications, agriculture, tourism and other strategic sectors, according to a report released by the United Nations and partner organizations this afternoon.

Ion Botnaru, Director of the General Assembly and Economic and Social Council Affairs Division in the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, briefed correspondents today on the rules of procedure for tomorrow’s election of five non-permanent members of the Security Council.

The Security Council is just back from its mission to Sudan where ambassadors visited Juba, El Fasher and Khartoum last week. Speaking from Khartoum on Saturday, United Kingdom Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant affirmed that the Council remains concerned about conflict in Sudan and the continuing risks to peace and security there.

With the prevalence of discrimination and violence against women rising around the world, all States must become parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and its Optional Protocol, to ensure the dignity and respect that women worldwide deserved, Zou Xiaoqiao, Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, stressed today.

Despite not having won election to the Security Council, Canada would continue to work towards a transparent Council that was accountable to Member States as well as responsive to contemporary realities and challenges, Lawrence Cannon, the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, said today.

The General Assembly voted today on the five incoming members of the Security Council for two-year terms beginning in January 2011. The incoming members will replace Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda, whose two-year terms expire at the end of this year. The new elected members are Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa.

Recent releases of thousands of child soldiers showed that that attention to the plight of children in armed conflict had made an impact, but stronger action was needed to deal with persistent violators, sexual violence and reintegration, the top United Nations official on the issue said this afternoon.

Addressing the Security Council’s meeting on peacebuilding today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that while progress was being made — in Burundi, Haiti, Nepal, Sierra Leone and elsewhere - for people who have suffered through conflict, progress can’t come fast enough. He emphasized four areas for improvement: to get the right people in the right place at the right time; to have predictable financing; to forge more effective partnerships; and to put women at the heart of peacebuilding.