Economic and Social Council: No name

In a resumed organizational session today, the Economic and Social Council adopted one draft decision and filled vacancies in 21 of its subsidiary bodies, with only two requiring votes.

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues had an urgent mandate to activate the 2007 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples through national legislation around the world, members said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon on today’s opening of the Forum’s eighth session.

The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues will meet at Headquarters from 18 to 29 May to discuss ways to further implement the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which gained momentum last month, when Australia officially endorsed it after previously having voted against it.

A green revolution in Africa would only be possible if the approach to agricultural development on the continent underwent its own revolution, the Commission on Sustainable Development was told during the first of two plenary round tables today.

The international community must remain steadfastly committed to Haiti’s long-term recovery and development as the impoverished Caribbean island nation grappled with the impact of four hurricanes last year, sharp hikes in food and oil prices, and the global recession, the head of a team of United Nations advisers that visited Haiti last week said today at a Headquarters press conference.

In the midst of a global recession and ongoing food price crisis, “things can deteriorate frighteningly fast”, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned today, as he urged the Commission on Sustainable Development to look beyond short-term measures and agree on a set of policy decisions that would revitalize agriculture, support small farmers and promote food security for all.

The challenge facing the Commission on Sustainable Development as it began the second week of its annual session was how to achieve a successful “harvest” of agreed actions and measurable deliverables, the Chairperson of that 53-member body said today, during a brief plenary meeting before negotiations recommenced on a set of policy recommendations to address agriculture, drought, desertification, land use, rural development and sustainable development in Africa.

At the end of the first week of its annual two-week session, the Commission on Sustainable Development was warned by its Chairperson that it must go further to overcome differences or it would risk falling short of its goal of fashioning critical global policies to address agriculture, drought, desertification, land use, rural development and sustainable development in Africa.

Meeting briefly this afternoon, the Commission on Sustainable Development heard briefings by the co-Chairpersons of its two working groups on the status of negotiations on the outcome document of the 53-member body’s current session.

All 192 Member States of the United Nations agreed on the need for intensified global action to protect the world’s forests from a series of environmental threats, including climate change, loss of biodiversity and desertification, as the United Nations Forum on Forests concluded its biennial meeting this weekend on the brink of the upcoming climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.