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.

The world had become “marginally less peaceful”, in the last 12 months, Clyde McConaghy, a Board Member of the Institute for Economics and Peace, said today at a Headquarters press conference on the results of the Global Peace Index for 2010. Highlighting key findings of the Index, he said internal country indicators, such as the likelihood of violent demonstrations, homicide rates and perceptions of criminality within society, were major drivers that created a less peaceful world.

A coalition of States working to end piracy and armed robbery off the Somali Coast held its sixth meeting today at United Nations Headquarters and briefed correspondents afterward on the operational challenges they were facing, among them the vast distances of ocean that needed protecting and the lack of legal capacity among most countries of the region.

With the scale and complexity of United Nations peacekeeping operations increasing dramatically over the past decade, new and innovative approaches to disarmament, demobilization and reintegration — driven more by practitioners in the field and their local partners than by diplomats in New York — were beginning to make a difference on the ground, a senior peacekeeping official said today.

The Secretary-General is in South Africa today, where he has been attending the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony and the opening match at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg. He regards this World Cup tournament as a major landmark for the people of Africa, and was thrilled to be able to experience the exuberance of the opening ceremony and match.

At a Headquarters press conference today, the General Assembly President elect for the sixty-fifth session, Joseph Deiss ( Switzerland), said that the priorities of his tenure would be global and environmental governance, human rights, the environment and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.