The Commission on Population and Development zeroed in today on the crucial work that the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs delivers to countries around the world as they cope with a range of demographic challenges that could impact realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Speakers in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today pressed United Nations bodies across the system to expand resources and opportunities for indigenous representatives so that they may participate in the Organization’s work, with many calling out practices that prevent their voices from being heard and advocating for a greater focus by the Forum on breaking down barriers.
Inequalities in financial space and an unfair international corporate tax architecture urgently require reform to foster recovery and growth in developing countries — with private finance and investment key factors — speakers told the Economic and Social Council today as it continued its annual forum on financing for development follow-up with three panel discussions.
Speakers addressing the Commission on Population and Development urged Governments to enact more robust social protection schemes across the human life cycle — aimed at helping young people, women and members of marginalized social groups achieve their full productive potential — as the body continued its fifty-fifth session today.
Indigenous peoples are routinely exposed to highly toxic substances left behind by reckless companies that poison their lands and waters with cyanide, mercury, lead and cadmium, the Special Rapporteur on the issue told the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today, as participants engaged with three United Nations experts on ways to uphold their basic human rights on the international stage.
The Economic and Social Council continued its annual forum on financing for development today, holding a special high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), to discuss solutions for securing an inclusive and sustainable recovery amidst the economic fallout from COVID-19 and rising geopolitical tensions.
Experts outlined demographic and development-based approaches to “building back better” from the coronavirus pandemic while advancing towards full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as the Commission on Population and Development’s annual session entered its second day today.
While international standards guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination, territories and resources, these fundamental freedoms are trampled upon in the name of mining, logging, oil, gas exploration and even conservation deemed essential to national development, speakers told the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today, laying out recommendations for transnational businesses to respect their traditional knowledge and inherent dignity.
The explosive growth of extractive operations around the world often plays out on indigenous people’s lands without their consent, causing irreparable harm to their livelihoods, cultures, languages and lives, speakers told the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today, as it opened its 2022 session amid calls to respect their free, prior and informed consent on the existential decisions uprooting their communities.
The Economic and Social Council opened its annual forum on financing for development follow-up today with speakers warning that a convergence of crises — the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and debt unsustainability — have been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, threatening to reverse development gains by a generation.
