Meetings Coverage

With women and girls among the major victims of the violence perpetrated with illegally traded conventional arms, it was vital that an arms trade treaty take into account and contain specific gender-based violence criterion, the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty Conference was told today as it entered its second week of negotiations in New York.

The Economic and Social Council today closed its third Development Cooperation Forum as a range of speakers described a “new world” in which non-traditional partners and innovative development arrangements were becoming increasingly prominent.

The rampant use of forged documents to open the floodgates for rising numbers of conventional weapon deliveries to fragile areas must be among the critical issues tackled by a robust international arms trade instrument, the representative of Dominican Republic told delegates at Headquarters, as the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty continued its month-long meeting today.

Underscoring its commitment to seeing the world’s newest State become economically prosperous and living side by side with Sudan in peace and security, the Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) for one year, through 15 July 2013.

Burundi looked “immeasurably different” from the conflict-ravaged country of a few years ago, but “decisive and confident leadership” was required to consolidate governance that allowed dissent, shunned corruption and spurred development, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council this morning.

Condemning the March seizure of power by some members of the armed forces in Mali, as well as human rights violations by rebels in the north of the Sahelian country, the Security Council this morning called for the creation of a road map for the restoration of constitutional order and State authority throughout its territory.

The world had a shared calling to lift people from poverty and support long-term sustainable development, a task that was growing more urgent each day amid high food and energy prices and widening inequities between and within countries, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Economic and Social Council today, as he launched the Third Development Cooperation Forum.

An effective arms trade treaty was an “opportunity to sow the seeds of durable peace and spark hope among millions that violence and conflict can be overcome,” the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty heard today as it continued its month-long session in New York. “The world can no longer wait for much-needed regulation of the trade of conventional weapons,” declared the representative of Costa Rica in a statement to the Conference.

Concerned by the forced demographic changes resulting from the conflicts in Georgia, and the humanitarian situation causes by the 2008 armed conflict, the General Assembly this morning recognized the right of return of internally displaced persons to their homes throughout that country, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia, while adopting consensus texts on the Year of Crystallography and United Nations support for promoting democracy.

Amid concern over predictions for yet another year of tepid global growth, the Economic and Social Council held a high-level policy dialogue today with marquee financial and trade organizations on the state of the world economy, as it also wrapped up its annual ministerial review on ways to generate decent jobs and end poverty.