The Economic and Social Council continued its annual forum on financing for development today, holding a special high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), to discuss solutions for securing an inclusive and sustainable recovery amidst the economic fallout from COVID-19 and rising geopolitical tensions.
Experts outlined demographic and development-based approaches to “building back better” from the coronavirus pandemic while advancing towards full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as the Commission on Population and Development’s annual session entered its second day today.
Senior United Nations officials today urged the Security Council not to forget about the dire humanitarian situation in Syria in light of other conflicts, as members discussed the recent conclusion of the seventh session of the Constitutional Committee and diverged over appropriate modalities for providing life-saving aid.
While international standards guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination, territories and resources, these fundamental freedoms are trampled upon in the name of mining, logging, oil, gas exploration and even conservation deemed essential to national development, speakers told the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today, laying out recommendations for transnational businesses to respect their traditional knowledge and inherent dignity.
Amid growing criticism of inaction by the Security Council on the war in Ukraine, the General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution today aimed at holding the five permanent Council members accountable for their use of veto.
The explosive growth of extractive operations around the world often plays out on indigenous people’s lands without their consent, causing irreparable harm to their livelihoods, cultures, languages and lives, speakers told the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today, as it opened its 2022 session amid calls to respect their free, prior and informed consent on the existential decisions uprooting their communities.
The Economic and Social Council opened its annual forum on financing for development follow-up today with speakers warning that a convergence of crises — the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and debt unsustainability — have been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, threatening to reverse development gains by a generation.
The status quo on Jerusalem’s holy sites must be upheld at all costs, speakers told the Security Council today, following the recent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces at Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount during religious holidays.
Against the backdrop of shifting population demographics, conflicts, post-pandemic economic shocks and climate change, the developing world is on the brink of a “perfect storm” of debt, food and energy crises, experts warned today, as the Commission on Population and Development opened its fifty-fifth session.
With the final status of Abyei still unresolved, an alarming recent flare-up of violence killing civilians and peacekeepers threatens the apparent calm between Sudan and South Sudan, speakers told the Council today, as that body also looked towards a possible future renewal of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) mandate.
