Meetings Coverage and Press Releases

In progress at UNHQ

Meetings Coverage

ECOSOC/6561

Focus, Pragmatism, Determination among Keys to Meeting ‘Eminently Solvable’ Challenge of Ending Hunger, Special Joint Meeting Told

Calling strongly for concrete policy actions and targeted investments to enhance food security and scale up nutrition, top officials from the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly’s Second Committee (Economic and Financial) stressed today that “hope, focus, pragmatism and determination” — bolstered by deeper cooperation — were crucial to ending hunger, a global challenge that was “eminently solvable”.
SOC/4805

Commission for Social Development Discusses Ways to Ensure Greater Relevance in Engaging with Economic and Social Council, Wider United Nations System

Meeting briefly today, the Commission for Social Development took up a number of issues that would set the tone for its upcoming work and, more broadly, allow it to engage in more relevant ways within the United Nations system, especially the Economic and Social Council, whose principal role in the follow-up to major United Nations meetings was elevated by the landmark 2012 Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development.
SC/10916

European Union ‘Steadfast Partner’ for UN in Trying to Steer Global Community Away from Conflict towards More Peaceful, Secure World, Security Council Told

The European Union harboured a strong belief in effective multilateralism and would remain a steadfast partner of the Security Council in its great responsibility of steering the international community away from conflict and confrontation towards a more peaceful and secure world, its High Representative pledged today, as she addressed the 15-member body.
SOC/4804

Speakers Urge Rapid Action to Stimulate Job Creation, Give Excluded Groups Voice, as Commission for Social Development Continues Session

With an estimated 75 million young people out of work around the world — nearly one in four in some parts — rapid action was needed to stimulate job creation, give young people and other excluded groups a voice in decision-making and institute schemes for social protection floors, the Commission for Social Development heard today as it continued its fifty-first session.
SC/10913

Security Council Says States Have Primary Responsibility for Protecting Civilians in Conflict, Reaffirms Peacekeeping Missions Need Protection Mandate, Resources

In its continued consideration of the compelling need to protect unarmed populations targeted by belligerents in armed conflict or victimized as an unintended result of the fighting, the Security Council today held that States had the primary responsibility, but reaffirmed it would continue to ensure that peacekeeping missions, “where appropriate and on a case-by-case basis”, were also mandated to play their part and had priority in tapping into resources for that purpose.

ECOSOC/6560

Seize ‘Strategic and Unique’ Opportunities to Work for Results-Oriented Agenda, Economic and Social Council President Urges Delegations

Seizing the “strategic and unique” opportunities before the Economic and Social Council could make 2013 an “historic year” for the body, its President said today as he called on delegations to work together on a results-oriented agenda that would both strengthen the Council and enhance its contribution to United Nations-backed sustainable development processes now getting under way.
SOC/4803

High-level Meeting Will Provide Historic Opportunity to Empower Persons with Disabilities, Commission for Social Development Told

The High-level General Assembly Meeting on Disability and Development — to be held in September — would provide an historic opportunity to chart the way towards a truly inclusive development agenda while empowering the world’s 1 billion disabled persons as both agents and beneficiaries of change, the Commission for Social Development heard today as it moved into week two of its fifty-first session.
SOC/4802

Economic Growth Alone Insufficient to Ensure Equality, Sustained Prosperity, Panel Discussion Moderator Tells Commission for Social Development

Faced with expanding inequality and widening gaps between rich and poor, world leaders poised to devise a new development agenda for the post-2015 era should embark upon a “new discussion” about the often-neglected social dimension of sustainable development, speakers urged today as the Commission for Social Development continued its fifty-first session.