Small but significant steps were being made in political efforts to end the conflict in Syria on the heels of an agreement on creating de-escalation zones in that country, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy told the Security Council today, while warning of persistent fighting in some areas and the threat still posed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh).
Resuming its 2017 session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 47 groups for special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and deferred action on the status of 15 others.
Populism and xenophobia were challenging global solidarity at a moment when States should be working together to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, speakers stressed today as the Economic and Social Council opened its forum on financing for development follow-up.
KINGSTOWN, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 18 May — The Caribbean Regional Seminar on Decolonization had produced innovative ideas on a broad range of issues with a view to advancing progress towards self-determination for the remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories, participants said today at the conclusion of the event’s third and final day.
While Bosnia and Herzegovina was largely stable and had made considerable political strides, its continued progress must not be taken for granted, the senior United Nations official in the country warned the Security Council today, while expressing concern over divisive trends that risked reopening the Federation’s “wounds of the past”.
KINGSTOWN, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 17 May — The United Nations must break its long impasse and tailor effective approaches to self-determination that would lead swiftly to a future based on the aspirations of people living under colonial rule, delegates said today, as the Caribbean Regional Seminar on Decolonization entered its second day.
Somalia’s peaceful election of a new President had opened a unique opportunity to surmount entrenched insecurity, political and humanitarian challenges and create a functional State in the coming four years, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today.
As some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails marked 30 days of a “freedom and dignity” hunger strike, Israel continued to ignore their most basic demands and intensify its abuse and collective punishment, the Palestinian Rights Committee heard today.
Despite numerous challenges, the parties to Colombia’s six-month-old peace agreement were committed to “stay the course” in order to preserve the impressive gains already made, the co-leads of the Security Council’s recent mission to that country said this afternoon as they recapped their visit.
The situation in Kosovo was “generally stable” although fluctuating tensions remained in the Balkans region, the senior United Nations official there told the Security Council today.
