Economic and Social Council: Press Release

A new partnership to assist local communities in managing ever-increasing amounts of waste — and the growing presence of chemicals and hazardous and toxic elements in the general waste stream — was launched today at the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development.

In its last session before the “Rio+20” Conference in 2012, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development will meet from 2-13 May to recommend policy options aimed at promoting more efficient, equitable and safer use of the Earth’s resources.

The findings reported in "Fertility, reproductive health and development", a report issued by the United Nations Secretary-General will be discussed by the Commission on Population and Development at its forty-fourth session, held at United Nations headquarters from 11 to 15 April.

The Commission on the Status of Women will hold its fifty-fifth session at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 22 February to 4 March 2011, two weeks that will bring together Government officials and representatives of the United Nations, civil society, the media and the private sector.

Following are Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s remarks at an informal briefing to the Economic and Social Council on progress in implementing General Assembly resolution 64/289 on system-wide coherence, in New York, 17 February:

The Commission for Social Development will review global efforts to eradicate poverty when it meets at United Nations Headquarters from 9 to 18 February.

The International Year of Forests — a year-long celebration of the vital role that forests play in people’s lives — will be launched on 2 February, at a ceremony attended by world leaders, Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai and United Nations forest experts. Global observance of the Year comes amid growing recognition of the role that forests managed in a sustainable manner play in everything from mitigating climate change to providing wood, medicines and livelihoods for people around the world.

Strategies that can help the world’s forests to promote social development, livelihoods and poverty eradication will be the focus of the United Nations Forum on Forests, which will meet from 24 January to 4 February. The Forum, which consists of all 192 Members of the United Nations, aims to emphasize the role and needs of people who depend on forests at a time when unsustainable practices and economic crises continue to threaten healthy forests.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s remarks to the organizational session of the Economic and Social Council, in New York, today, 19 January:

Increased globalization, urbanization and rising prosperity around the world are taking an ever greater toll on the world’s ecosystems, according to two reports issued to coincide with the opening of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development.