While “enormous” gains had been made since the World Summit for Social Development had resulted in the Copenhagen Declaration in 1995, progress remained uneven — both within and among countries — with millions of people still excluded from access to the very rights, services and income-generating activities that underpinned a sustainable future for all, delegates said today as the Commission for Social Development opened the substantive segment of its fifty-fourth session.
The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission must take forward the outcomes of the latest reviews on peace operations, and link its work to implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, that body’s new Chair said today, at the opening of its 2016 session.
The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today concluded substantive work of its 2016 regular session with the presentation of the body’s draft report, which will be finalized for adoption on 16 February.
Fuelled by the voices, concerns and demands of young people, the largest-ever Economic and Social Council Youth Forum concluded its two-day session today, hearing from speakers who delved into critical issues, such as entrepreneurship, the quality of education, access to health services, gender equality and the right to contribute to development.
Continuing its regular session for 2016, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 10 organizations for special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council and deferred action on the status of 24 others.
The Economic and Social Council filled outstanding vacancies on five of its subsidiary bodies today, electing all new members by acclamation.
Continuing into the second week of its regular session for 2016, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended that the Economic and Social Council grant special consultative status to 27 organizations — including recommending that one group’s status be reinstated — while deferring action on 40 others.
With their advancement hampered by gender, ethnicity, social status or religion, and decisions affecting their lives too often in the hands of others, young people must be recognized as critical agents of change in order to transform inherited challenges into opportunities for a more prosperous, equal and sustainable world, Government and youth representatives stressed today, as the Economic and Social Council opened its fifth annual Youth Forum with the launch of the first global initiative on decent jobs for young people.
Protecting civilians, making progress in Mali and Côte d’Ivoire and creating a special mission to monitor disarmament in Colombia had been at the centre of the Security Council’s work over the past four weeks, Elbio Rosselli (Uruguay), its President for January, said during the monthly wrap-up meeting today.
President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi had portrayed an optimistic and positive picture of recent developments in his country, while the radical opposition camp had expressed concern that “genocide was in the making”, France’s representative told the Security Council today during a briefing on its visiting mission to Burundi and Ethiopia from 21 to 23 January.
