Home to 80 per cent of all terrestrial species and hailed as “the lungs of the planet” for their ability to generate oxygen, forests hold boundless potential to help solve the most pressing global challenges, speakers in the United Nations Forum on Forests stressed today, as they offered alternatives to the many activities threatening their health, from logging and oil exploration to well-intentioned but ill-conceived conservation efforts.
The support account for peacekeeping missions should correspond with the number and mandates of such operations in the field, speakers told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budget) today as it considered the Secretary-General’s proposed budget for the account during the upcoming 2022/23 fiscal cycle as well as financing for five peacekeeping missions in Africa.
Closing the Economic and Social Council’s two-day Multistakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals, senior United Nations officials welcomed the convergence of experts from Governments, the private sector, academia and civil society, and stressed how rapid scientific progress can be leveraged to address pressing global challenges, so long as the technology emerging is accessible to all.
The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues closed its twenty-first session today, approving a raft of recommendations related to its theme — “Indigenous peoples, business, autonomy and the human rights principles of due diligence including free, prior and informed consent” — as well as three draft decisions to be sent to the Economic and Social Council for formal adoption.
The Security Council expressed strong support today for the Secretary-General’s efforts in the search for a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine, in its first united action since the invasion of that country in late February.
A third humanitarian operation is under way to evacuate civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol in war-torn Ukraine after two successful convoys saved nearly 500 people in that area, the United Nations chief told the Security Council today.
The COVID-19 pandemic and emergence of variant viral strains underscore the importance of science, technology and innovation for the recovery and development of global populations, speakers said today as the Economic and Social Council opened its two-day forum on the topic amid calls to urgently address the widening digital gulf between developed and developing countries.
The delivery of essential United Nations mandates will suffer unless they act to ease the vicious cycle of liquidity shortages in the regular budget, the United Nations top financial official warned delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today as she discussed the Organization’s semi-annual financial situation.
Denouncing the epidemic of misinformation and disinformation proliferating during the coronavirus pandemic, the climate crisis and the rising geopolitical tensions, delegates welcomed today an initiative by the Department of Global Communications to draft a code of conduct to promote integrity in public information while urging it to mainstream multilingualism into its activities.
Delegates of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) urged each other today to disrupt the five-year deadlock over the crucial issues that cut across all operations — including sexual exploitation and abuse, the safety of peacekeepers and environmental safeguards. At the opening day of a resumed session dedicated to its global peacekeeping operations, Member States also emphasized the need to adequately finance the 11 peacekeeping missions, which now have a proposed budget of $6.5 billion, and resolve the Organization’s ongoing liquidity crisis.
