With Ebola nearly eradicated from Liberia, it was now critical to address factors that contributed to the epidemic’s spread in the country, particularly given the continued drawdown of peacekeepers, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council this afternoon.
The lessons of World War II — on whose ashes the United Nations was founded — must continue to guide the Organization’s work, even as it adapted to meet the evolving challenges of the modern world, delegates commemorating the seventieth anniversary of the end of the war told the General Assembly today.
The nine major groups participating in the United Nations Forum on Forests had an essential role to play in translating international policy decisions into local activities for sustainably managing the world’s woodlands, speakers stressed today, with some advocating the creation of a body that elevated the many different voices of civil society.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today opened the second part of its resumed sixty-ninth session dedicated to the United Nations’ peacekeeping operations, whose budget for 2015/16 would reach $8.5 billion.
In a rapidly changing world, bolstered cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations was needed to respond effectively to emerging threats to international peace and security, the General Assembly was told today as it held a high-level thematic debate on the issue.
With 1.6 billion people depending on forests for food, fuel, shelter and income, now was the time to strengthen the global political commitment to sustainably manage one of the planet’s most cherished resources, top United Nations officials stressed today, as the United Nations Forum on Forests opened its eleventh session.
Fervent calls by survivors and activists for genuine and sustained efforts towards the abolition of nuclear weapons dominated the 2015 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) today, as non-governmental organizations addressed delegates at Headquarters.
The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues concluded its fourteenth session today, sending nine draft reports to the Economic and Social Council containing proposals, recommendations and three draft decisions, including a call for the General Assembly to consider establishing a procedure to guarantee indigenous peoples’ participation in its seventieth session.
The top Palestinian diplomat at the United Nations this afternoon called on the Organization to include Israel’s army among the parties that committed grave violations against children during armed conflict, and to hold it accountable for attacks last year on United Nations-run schools sheltering civilians in Gaza.
Indigenous representatives today called upon States to implement the provisions of international instruments and their national legislation guaranteeing their rights, and sought assistance from the Permanent Forum as that body concluded debate on several topics.
