The Security Council would focus in January on comprehensive strategies to stamp out global terrorism and bolster the effectiveness of United Nations peacekeeping operations, the Permanent Representative of Pakistan, which holds the Council’s rotating presidency for the month, said today.

Ambassador Masood Khan of Pakistan, who is presiding over the Security Council in January, will be briefing on the programme of work adopted for this month. And then Ambassador Baso Sangqu of South Africa and Zaheer Laher, South Africa’s Security Council Political Coordinator, will brief on the conclusion of their country’s second term on the Council.

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said today that it had received credible reports that rebel groups and pro-government militias are increasingly recruiting and involving children in the armed conflict in the Central African Republic. It called for an immediate halt to such recruitment and urges all parties to protect children against the harmful impact of the conflict.

On Syria, the Secretary-General said that what the Syrian people desperately need at this time are real solutions to the crisis that is tearing their nation apart, and he was disappointed that the speech by President Bashar al-Assad on 6 January does not contribute to a solution that could end the terrible suffering of the Syrian people.

The Secretary-General deeply regrets the decision of Bahrain’s Court of Cassation on 7 January to uphold the harsh sentences, including life imprisonment, against 20 Bahraini political activists, and he reiterates his firm belief that the only way to promote peace, stability, justice and prosperity in Bahrain is through a national dialogue.

During its two-year tenure as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, South Africa had helped to bolster international peace and security — on the African continent in particular — while advocating for a stronger, more coordinated relationship between the Council and the African Union, the country’s Permanent Representative said at a Headquarters press conference today.

The Joint Special Representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, will meet at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva on Friday with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and United States Deputy Secretary of State William Burns. That meeting is aimed at furthering their discussions to arrive at a political solution to the crisis in Syria.

The Deputy Secretary-General will travel to Washington, D.C., for meetings with senior officials at the World Bank on Friday. The purpose of the visit is to discuss further collaboration between the United Nations and the World Bank, and he will hold meetings with Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, and take part in a round-table discussion.

The UN refugee agency says that severe winter conditions across Syria and the wider region have brought new difficulties for refugees and other displaced people. There has been no let-up in the number of people fleeing the violence in Syria and there are now more than 600,000 people either registered as refugees or being assisted as such.

The Secretary-General is following with concern developments regarding the announced plans for Israeli settlement construction in the so-called E1 area, on which he expressed his grave disappointment in his statement of 2 December. He notes that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, and repeats his call that any such settlement plans for E-1 must be rescinded.