Meetings Coverage

The senior United Nations official in the Sahel today unveiled an integrated strategy for combating extremists and terrorists in the region and beyond, as well as arms proliferation and transnational organized crime.

The expanded use of new technologies — including unarmed drones — in United Nations peacekeeping operations could bolster both military and political intelligence and help save lives, the Security Council heard today during briefings by force commanders of a number of missions.

Calling for a bold response to the global employment crisis, the Secretary-General urged that young entrepreneurs be encouraged, educated and empowered in order to meet the challenge of filling nearly half a billion jobs by 2030.

Despite significant challenges and escalating tensions on the ground, the United Nations must not let a “collective sense of impotence” erode its sense of responsibility in the Middle East, warned a top political official as he briefed the Security Council this afternoon.

The United Nations top official in Mali commended the 18 June Preliminary Agreement on the Presidential Elections and Inclusive Negotiations between that country’s transitional Government and armed groups in the north as an “important first step” towards full restoration of constitutional order and territorial integrity in the strife-torn country.

Speakers at a special event today highlighted the private sector’s potential to help fragile countries emerge from years, if not decades, of conflict by creating jobs and economic stability while healing rifts among diverse peoples.

The increasingly complex nature of migration, coupled with the fact that more people were on the move than ever before, required the international community to address the deepening relationship linking international migration and development, Acting General Assembly President Rodney Charles ( Trinidad and Tobago), said today.

The Security Council today urged the United Nations sanctions committees to apply targeted sanctions against parties committing sexual violence during armed conflict.

The Special Committee on Decolonization today concluded its 2013 substantive session by approving, by consensus, three draft resolutions, including one whereby the General Assembly would, for the first time since 1947, reaffirm the inalienable right of the people of French Polynesia to self-determination.

Recalling its endorsement of the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development titled “The future we want”, the General Assembly today decided to establish an intergovernmental committee of experts on sustainable development financing.