Economic and Social Council

During its resumed substantive session for 2009, the Economic and Social Council this afternoon elected by secret ballot Jorge Montano (Mexico) to serve effective immediately as a member of the International Narcotics Control Board until 1 March 2012. Mr. Montano was elected to replace Maria Elena Medina-Mora Icaza (Mexico), who resigned. He received 40 of 46 votes. Two delegates who were present abstained from the voting.

Launching "The World Economic and Social Survey 2009: Promoting Development, Saving the Planet" at Headquarters today, a high-level official of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs said that pursuing the two goals of fighting climate change and simultaneously meeting development demands would require a global public policy agenda, as market mechanisms were not the most effective instruments to drive change.

Following a recent mission to Bolivia and Paraguay, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues released two reports today expressing grave concern over forced labour suffered by indigenous peoples in the Chaco regions of those two countries.

In a bid to transform the historic 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into “living law”, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues closed its eighth session today by adopting a text that invited States to adopt or endorse the document, substantively inform the Forum about its implementation and effectiveness, and recommended that they do the same in core reports to human rights treaty bodies and the Human Rights Council’s universal periodic review.

The semi-slavery of the Guarani and other indigenous peoples of the Chaco region must swiftly end, with their grievances redressed and land rights restored, members of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues told delegates today, revealing findings from their mission to Paraguay and Bolivia.

Agriculture was a mainstay of development in Africa, but was also a neglected sector, Robert Vos, Director, Development Policy and Analysis Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, told correspondents today at the launch of the 2009 Africa Economic Report, adding that “regional value chains” could enhance African agricultural markets through cooperation, rather than focusing on competition between African countries.

All of humanity must work together to re-establish harmony and unity with the natural environment by implementing the Kyoto Protocol and creating a global governance system that respected and supported vegetable, mineral, animal, human and cosmic life, Nicolas Lucas Ticum, a Maya priest from Guatemala and a researcher on the Calendario Maya, told the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today, as it continued its eighth session.

With the conclusion of its resumed 2009 session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations recommended that the Economic and Social Council grant consultative status to 36 bodies and reclassify one group, and took note of 111 quadrennial reports.

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues would support a framework which stressed the State’s duty to protect citizens, through regulation and adjudication, against human rights abuses by third parties, Chairperson Victoria Tauli-Corpuz said this afternoon.

The United Nations had downgraded its world economic forecast for 2009, Rob Vos, Director of the Development Policy and Analysis Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning.