Fearing a rollback of achievements in implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, speakers appealed to Governments to uphold commitments protecting the rights of all indigenous peoples and prevent a reversal of hard-won gains, as the sixteenth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues continued today.
Senior United Nations officials joined representatives of the world’s indigenous communities and Member States today as the General Assembly marked the tenth anniversary of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and explored ways to further its implementation.
While the political process in South Sudan was not dead, it would require “significant resuscitation”, the senior United Nations official in that country told the Security Council today, as it considered the recent security, humanitarian and political developments in the world’s youngest nation.
The Department of Public Information was harnessing its multilingual news platforms, worldwide network of information centres and outreach efforts to communicate compelling United Nations stories to a global public increasingly accessing news through tablets and mobile platforms, its Acting Head told the Committee on Information today.
While progress had been made on a range of pressing challenges amid the world’s embrace of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, far more must be done to ensure that indigenous peoples were not left behind, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues heard today, during the opening of its sixteenth session.
Despite progress by a growing number of countries towards striking the balance between growth and respect for the planet, more concrete, holistic and law-based approaches would be needed for the drive to true sustainable development, the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs told the General Assembly today.
The Economic and Social Council today adopted a resolution calling on all organizations in the United Nations system to make full use of the United Nations Staff College in Turin, Italy, and welcoming its role as a catalyst for organizational change.
Following three weeks of deliberations, the Disarmament Commission reached consensus today on the draft report it would send to the General Assembly and on the reports of its subsidiary bodies, as it concluded its 2017 substantive session.
Prior to adopting resolutions on tax evasion and the United Nations Forum on Forests, as well as a decision on geospatial information, speakers informed the Economic and Social Council that the world was facing a serious crisis, with the lives of more than 20 million people now under serious threat due to extreme hunger.
The Peacebuilding Commission was rapidly becoming a “lynchpin” body that brought together the diverse activities of the United Nations in support of peace, speakers in the General Assembly stressed today, as they also adopted a draft decision accrediting intergovernmental groups to a conference on ocean conservation.
