Security Council: Meetings Coverage

The Security Council decided this morning to extend the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL) for one year, until 30 September 2010.

Noting with concern the threats to subregional stability, in particular posed by drug trafficking, organized crime and illicit arms, and reiterating the continuing need for support by the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) for the security of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Security Council today extended the Mission’s mandate until 30 September 2010.

The success of Sierra Leone’s road towards stable democracy would depend largely on the extent to which its Government would be able to provide a “peace and democracy dividend” for all Sierra Leoneans, which would depend in turn on its ability to rally international support for its “Agenda for Change”, the head of the United Nations presence in that country told the Security Council today.

Through strong international support and the efforts of its Government, Haiti now had an historic chance to consolidate its political stability and escape from extreme poverty, United Nations Special Envoy William J. Clinton told the Security Council this afternoon.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for one year, until 31 August 2010, strongly calling on all concerned parties to respect the cessation of hostilities and the Blue Line and to fully cooperate with the United Nations and its Mission.

In the Middle East over the past month there had been several important developments on the ground as well as continued international efforts to create the conditions for the “prompt resumption and early conclusion of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations”, a top United Nations official told the Security Council this morning.

Parties to armed conflict continued to use sexual violence with efficient brutality, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council today as it held a day-long debate on the agenda item “Women and peace and security”.

The Security Council, reiterating its support to the people and Government of Iraq in their efforts “to build a secure, stable, federal, united and democratic nation, based on the rule of law and respect for human rights”, today extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in that country for another year.

Seeking to determine the future direction of peacekeeping at a time of growing complexity in United Nations operations, coupled with growing demand and scarce resources, the Security Council today continued its discussion of practical steps to “improve the preparation, planning, monitoring and evaluation, and completion” of peacekeeping missions.

With “a new sense of optimism and energy spreading” among the Iraqi people, as the overall level of violence in their country began to decrease and as “promising moves” towards political reconciliation got under way, the newly appointed United Nations envoy told the Security Council today that the world body’s peacekeeping Mission in Iraq should begin expanding its focus to economic recovery, social development and political stabilization.