After a period of intense negotiations, the Security Council coalesced around the urgent need to increase humanitarian aid access in Syria today, calling on all parties to immediately cease attacks against civilians and lift the siege of populated areas, including in the embattled Old City of Homs.
The Commission for Social Development concluded its fifty-second session today with the approval of six draft resolutions for adoption by the Economic and Social Council that addressed issues of empowerment, older persons and the family, as well as one text that would hone the Commission’s own focus on visual health.
Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told the Special Committee on Decolonization as it opened its 2014 substantive session that it was becoming loud and clear and that the time was opportune to push forward on pending issues.
A lack of data, inadequate monitoring and evaluation of social programmes, as well as a dearth of trained professionals hindered the achievement of social development objectives, the Commission tasked with advancing those goals heard today, as it wrapped up its substantive work for the session with discussions on issues affecting vulnerable social groups.
