Meetings Coverage

Government ministers and other high officials from around the globe meeting in New York committed themselves to strengthening the United Nations Economic and Social Council, in order to engender more coherent multilateral action to face the daunting challenges of sustainable development, at a Special Ministerial Meeting of that body this afternoon and evening.

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met this morning to fill the remaining vacant position on its Bureau for the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly.

The General Assembly, convening the second meeting of its sixty-seventh session and acting on the recommendations of its General Committee, adopted a programme of work which contained nearly 170 items.

The recent series of high-level meetings in Chicago, Kabul and Tokyo had “redefined and reinvigorated” the long term partnership between Afghanistan and the world community, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council this afternoon.

Tougher sanctions and deeper diplomatic efforts would be essential in settling differences over Iran’s nuclear programme, Security Council members heard today during a briefing by the head of its sanctions committee on that country.

The Security Council today stated its readiness to adopt targeted sanctions against parties that persistently violated the rights of children in armed conflict, strongly condemning their recruitment, killing, maiming, sexual abuse, abduction and denial of aid, as well as attacks on schools and hospitals, ahead of a debate on the topic that drew some 60 speakers.

Welcoming significant political progress in Somalia that had led to the selection of a new President, the Security Council this morning called for the formation of an inclusive Government, the definition of post-transition priorities and the bolstering of security, peacebuilding, anti-corruption and anti-piracy efforts, in coordination with continued international support.

Faced with extraordinary challenges including terrorism, widespread geopolitical instability and the urgent need for sustainable development, the General Assembly — through a host of new initiatives and an unflagging commitment to the United Nations founding principles — must contribute more to the destiny of the planet, said that body’s new President, Vuk Jeremić, as he opened its sixty-seventh annual session this afternoon.

The kinds of stress factors tearing at Mali’s social and political fabric reflected the deep-seated fragilities stretching across the broader Sahel region, and it was critical for the international community to commit to dealing effectively with the underlying structural causes of that vulnerability, the Security Council was told today.

The top United Nations official dealing with the Middle East peace process told the Security Council today that the financial and economic crises currently crippling the Palestinian Authority were a “sobering manifestation” of the risk that the ongoing political stalemate between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the ongoing occupation, posed to the very viability of the two-State solution.