• In a statement, the Secretary-General welcomes the first verdict issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo. Mr. Lubanga’s conviction for the war crimes of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 is an important step forward in realising the international community's commitment to ensuring that perpetrators of crimes against children in situations of armed conflict are brought to justice.
• The Secretary-General emphasizes the need for the international community to continue with its efforts to put an end to impunity and recalls the importance of holding accountable those who commit genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. In this connection, he reaffirms the strongcommitment of the United Nations to support the independent work of the Court as the centrepiece of the international criminal justice system.
• The Secretary-General welcomes the continued cooperation between the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the International Criminal Court and urges the Congolese authorities to continue to strengthen their efforts to hold accountable all perpetrators of gross human rights violations.
• In its verdict, the ICC said that Mr. Lubanga will be sentenced at a later date.
• The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, said that Wednesday’s verdict will serve as a strong deterrent to warlords and commanders across the world.
• The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Roger Meece, said the judgment is key in the fight to end impunity in the country.

• Food insecurity in Yemen has reached alarming levels, with almost five million people unable to produce or buy the food they need, according to the preliminary findings of a survey carried out by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in cooperation with the Yemeni Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
• The WFP has already increased its humanitarian assistance in 2012 to feed 3.6 million vulnerable people in the wake of sharp rises in food prices and displacement of people fleeing conflict in the northern and the southern regions of the country.
• The Programme will be working with humanitarian partners on the ground to ensure that the immediate needs of the severely food insecure are met and calls for joint action to increase assistance to the vulnerable Yemeni population.
• The full report will be available in April.

• The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) is authorised by the Security Council to provide support to regional forces undertaking operations against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, if requested by the Congolese Government.
• The Mission has not received such a request.
• The issue of cross-border operations by troops from the four countries affected by the LRA, which participate in the African Union-led Regional Task Force to counter the LRA threat, was raised at the joint UN-African Union Stakeholders meeting that took place in Addis Ababa on 29 February. 
• The African Union announced that, as a first step forward, it would convene a meeting of military experts from the four countries involved.
• In coordination with the African Union, the United Nations will continue to facilitate regional efforts to end the atrocities committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army.

• More than 110 Heads of State and Government have said they will participate in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, which is being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June.
• The Secretary-General has personally appealed to all Heads of State and Government to attend and to make this conference a success.
• The level of attendance is amongst the highest seen for this kind of event. The number is already higher than the Johannesburg conference.
• The Secretary-General is expected to brief the General Assembly on Friday morning on the report, entitled “Resilient people, resilient planet: a future worth choosing,” by the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability.

• Asked about Joint United Nations and League of Arab States Special Envoy Kofi Annan plans to brief the media, the Spokesperson said Mr. Annan's spokesperson had issued a statement on Wednesday morning in which he said, “The Joint Special Envoy (JSE) for Syria, Kofi Annan, has now received a response from the Syrian authorities. The JSE has questions and is seeking answers. But given the grave and tragic situation on the ground, everyone must realize that time is of the essence. As he said in the region, this crisis cannot be allowed to drag on.”