Meetings Coverage

Shaping a new sustainable security paradigm would hinge on finding common ground on modernizing the concept of general and complete disarmament for the twenty-first century, the Disarmament Commission heard today.

The world had witnessed nothing short of a demographic revolution since 1947, bringing with it both challenges and opportunities for sustainable development, speakers said today, as the Commission on Population and Development opened its fiftieth session.

Concluding the first part of its resumed seventy-first session, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today approved — without a vote — six draft texts relating to, among other things, funding for three special political missions and protection from retaliation of whistle-blowers who report serious misconduct.

The Security Council adopted its first resolution addressing Boko Haram’s presence in the Lake Chad Basin today, expressing concern about the protection needs of civilians affected by terrorism, including those resulting from sexual exploitation and abuse, extra-judicial killings and torture.

The Security Council renewed the mandate of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) this morning, extending it until 31 March 2018 while reducing the operation’s troop ceiling by some 3,600 military personnel.

Amid hope that 2017 would bring noticeable improvements in the level of humanitarian access in Syria, the ability of the United Nations to reach millions in need was no better than this time in 2016, the Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council today.

Nothing would be more noble than honouring victims of slavery — and recognizing the remarkable contributions of their descendants over the centuries — in the lands to which they were transported, the General Assembly heard today as it commemorated the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

The Security Council deplored today the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage, religious sites and artefacts, and the smuggling of cultural property by terrorist groups during armed conflict, affirming that such attacks might constitute a war crime and must be brought to justice.

The Commission on the Status of Women concluded its sixty-first session today, approving a sweeping set of Agreed Conclusions, which the top-ranking United Nations gender official said would help ensure that “work works for women”.

The last three months had seen a high rate of Israeli settlement plans and construction in the Occupied Palestinian Territory increased notably in the last three months, as did provocations from both sides, despite a call from the Security Council in late December 2016 to cease such activity, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process said this afternoon.