Economic and Social Council: Meetings Coverage

The rights of indigenous people across all areas of human endeavours must be respected, advanced and their participation guaranteed in formulating any decisions affecting them, speakers said, as the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues met today to take up the issue of human rights.

Continuing to vet dozens of applications before it, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council for 22 organizations — 17 from the global North and 5 from the South — and deferring action on 31 applications.

Indigenous youth should have the right to receive education in their mother tongue and determine their curricula in line with their time-tested cultures and customs, rather than be obliged to assimilate into a mainstream educational system virtually unresponsive to their way of life, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues heard today as it continued its work.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today continued the process of vetting the dozens of applications before it, recommending special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council for 53 organizations — 26 from the South and 27 from the North — and deferring action on the status of 17 others.

Opening its regular session for 2013, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, which is responsible for vetting applications seeking consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, today recommended special consultative status for 40 organizations, all but 8 of which were based in countries in the global South.

The international community could end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition sustainably by 2025 through holistic and “win-win” sustainable agriculture approaches, the head of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said this morning.

Meeting briefly in a resumed organizational session today, the Economic and Social Council this morning adopted its theme for an upcoming event on transition from relief to development, considered outstanding vacancies on two of its subsidiary bodies, and heard a briefing on the work of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination.

The Commission on Population and Development, adopting a consensus resolution as it closed its forty-sixth session late in the evening, called on States to promote and protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all migrants and to take a comprehensive and balanced approach to the increasingly complex issue of migration.

Advances in science and technology not only improved living conditions in both developed and developing countries, but enhanced the lives of migrants and enabled progress towards internationally agreed development goals, a senior official of the Economic and Social Council told Population and Development Commission members in today’s session.