Meetings Coverage

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) today recommended the accreditation of seven groups to the Economic and Social Council and postponed consideration of 21 applications, pending responses to questions posed by members.

The new Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission today urged members to “put our heads together” on ways to reinforce the body’s founding vision — providing strategic advice and harnessing expertise and financing to help post-conflict countries avoid sliding back into war or chaos — so that in 2013, the Commission could gain its rightful place within the United Nations peacebuilding architecture and beyond.

Beginning the second week of its 2013 session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today added four groups to the more than 3,500 it has accredited since its creation in 1946, and postponed consideration of 34 applications, pending responses to questions posed by members.

The Economic and Social Council today elected Néstor Osorio (Colombia) President of the 54-member body as it began its work for 2013, which would entail addressing such challenges as the implementation of internationally agreed development goals.

Urging the Security Council to maintain its strong support for the leaders and countries of West Africa, the Head of the United Nations Office there called for greater international attention to a raft of complex challenges plaguing the region, where notable political progress was being offset by the ongoing crisis in Mali and the rise of organized crime and terrorism in the Sahel and other areas.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, concluding its first week of examining applications for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, today added nine groups to the more than 3,500 it has accredited since its creation in 1946.

Reporting that the Sudanese Government and one of the main rebel factions in Darfur had just reached agreement on an agenda for negotiating a comprehensive peace in the restive western region of Sudan, a senior United Nations peacekeeping official told the Security Council that notwithstanding that positive development, the international community must ensure that all parties — including armed groups outside the peace process — remained committed to achieving a durable solution.

In a briefing to the Security Council this morning, the top United Nations official in Burundi praised the Central African country’s continued progress in consolidating peace and stability, but he cautioned that, with critical elections on the horizon, sustained international political engagement would be required to effectively remedy the two-year standoff between the Government and opposition parties, and ease the lingering economic hardships facing the Burundian people.

Adoption in the Security Council this morning of a resolution to extend for a further six months, until 31 July 2013, the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, first established in 1964, received the support of 14 members, while one delegation, that of Azerbaijan, had abstained.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic until 31 January 2014, with a strong emphasis on restoring security to that country seeking to recover from the ruins of decades of instability, as well as a recent month-long crisis during which rebel groups had advanced on the capital before being halted by a ceasefire and other agreements.