The multiple crises of the last three years have dealt “a major blow” to the Sustainable Development Goals, requiring urgent action in sharing science, technology, innovation and digitalization to bridge that gap between haves and have-nots and ensure not just global progress, but survival, speakers told the Economic and Social Council today as it opened its two-day forum on the subject.
The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People today elected its Vice-Chair and Rapporteur, as the Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine updated the Committee on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and gave a briefing on the guidelines for opinion case submissions to the International Court of Justice.
Delegates of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today urged each other to build on their momentum as they consider the Secretariat’s $6.8 billion budget for 11 peacekeeping operations and agree on a financing device for peacebuilding activities.
Closing its twenty-second session this afternoon, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues sent three draft decisions to the Economic and Social Council for formal adoption as it approved several recommendations on this year’s priority theme, “Indigenous Peoples, human health, planetary and territorial health and climate change: a rights-based approach”.
As the biggest gathering of the Economic and Social Council Youth Forum of all time concluded today, youth delegates and high-level Government and United Nations officials underscored the vital role of young people in policy and decision-making and their more enhanced engagement in related intergovernmental processes, particularly the upcoming Summit on the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Security Council today unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the decision of the Taliban to ban Afghan women from working for the United Nations in Afghanistan, saying that it undermines human rights and humanitarian principles.
With Syria at a potentially important juncture due to renewed diplomatic attention to the strife-torn country in the aftermath of devastating earthquakes, unlocking progress on a political solution requires multiple stakeholders who hold different keys to work together, the Organization’s senior official on the ground said today during his briefing to the Security Council.
Despite heightened tensions, the “Agreement on the path to normalisation between Kosovo and Serbia”, reached in Ohrid, North Macedonia in March, marks a historic milestone, the Security Council heard today, as senior representatives from Pristina and Belgrade offered countering perspectives on the drivers of regional insecurity.
Prior to adopting three draft resolutions tackling infrastructure connectivity, voluntary national reviews and cooperation with the Council of Europe, the General Assembly held its first ever formal debate on the use of the veto in the Security Council, with speakers deliberating the impact of the new transparency and accountability mechanism — enabled by resolution 76/262 — and its role in enhancing the General Assembly’s functions while achieving legitimacy in the use of the veto.
With Haiti descending into a catastrophic spiral of violence, the head of the United Nations office there warned the Security Council in her briefing today that the country’s people need help now.
