Meetings Coverage

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.

The United Nations top policy official on Afghanistan today called on the Afghan Government to bolster steps to ensure next April’s presidential and provincial council elections were transparent and inclusive, while deploring the spike in violence against civilians in recent months.

The Special Committee on Decolonization today approved a draft resolution on the question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas)* by which the General Assembly would reiterate that the way to end that “special and particular colonial situation” was the peaceful and negotiated settlement of the sovereignty dispute between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom.