Economic and Social Council

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 33 organizations for special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council and deferred action on 45 others as it continued its session.

Opening its 2016 resumed session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 61 groups for special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, deferring action on the applications of 47 others.

Closing its fifteenth session today, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues sent a series of far-reaching recommendations — on issues ranging from the preservation of indigenous languages to the prevention of suicide among indigenous youth — to the Economic and Social Council.

Calls for action to preserve indigenous languages took centre stage today as the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues entered the penultimate day of its fifteenth session, also taking up such critical issues as health, education, human rights, economic and social development, environment and culture.

After 15 years, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues had matured into a unique platform for the exchange of knowledge, but must now find ways to ensure the implementation of its recommendations or risk losing its hard-won credibility, speakers said today while suggesting changes to consider in developing future work programmes.

Conflicts over land and natural resources — many of which turned bloody — continued to plague indigenous communities across the globe, stressed speakers today as the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues held two panel discussions focused on peace, conflict and resolution.

The three main bodies charged with promoting indigenous peoples’ rights worldwide must better identify the strengths and limits of their respective mandates in order to work together more effectively, speakers in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues said today, drawing attention to unresolved cases of human rights abuses, some of which had endured generations.

A new status should be created for indigenous peoples to participate more fully in the work of United Nations bodies, speakers in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues said today, advocating a process that would allow them to choose their representatives in line with their unique legal and cultural norms.

Development projects that could have wide-ranging impacts on the traditional lands and territories of indigenous peoples needed to be subject to free, prior and informed consent, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues heard today.

High suicide rates among indigenous youth related directly to the severe — and often invisible — discriminatory pressures they confronted in reconciling past colonial injustices with their search for a better future, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues heard today amid strong calls for education, health care and job opportunities that honoured their traditional heritage.