Meetings Coverage

The General Assembly today adopted a resolution by consensus that reaffirmed its support for the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

The Economic and Social Council concluded its resumed coordination and management segment today with the adoption of 14 draft resolutions, including a text aimed at addressing the economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian people, and another calling for increased support of United Nations specialized agencies to non-self-governing territories.

The Security Council, considering the report of the Peacebuilding Commission’s seventh session, heard that building peace in post-conflict countries was a complex and challenging process, requiring national ownership and leadership, and strengthened responses to early warning signs of relapse.

Organized crime and illicit criminal activity undermined essential institutions like the rule of law and delivery of education and health, the United Nations leading expert on drugs and crime told the Economic and Social Council today.

Deploring the fact that previous demands for aid access in Syria had not been heeded, the Security Council today authorized — for 180 days — relief delivery “across conflict lines” and through additional border crossings, as well as the expeditious deployment of a monitoring mechanism to assure compliance.

The Economic and Social Council today urged the United Nations development system to address poverty eradication as an overarching priority, as it concluded its operational activities segment.

The inflow of weapons into the Central African Republic appeared to have been staunched, but impunity for human rights abuses and illicit exploitation of minerals “created fertile ground for rebel and criminal activities”, the head of the sanctions committee on that country told the Security Council this morning.

Funding of the global coordination mechanism to fight disease averaged just $10,000 per Member State — a paltry $1.8 million in total — the General Assembly heard today as it concluded its two-day high-level review of progress achieved in the prevention and control of non-communicable disease.

The rhetoric must become a reality when it came to development assistance, the Economic and Social Council heard today, as its high-level segment ended, concluding two weeks in which ministers and other senior Government officials considered key items that would make the post-2015 development agenda a success.

Warning at an emergency Security Council meeting this morning of violence spiralling out of control in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the international community to accelerate efforts to immediately halt the escalation as he condemned the rising toll on Palestinian civilians.