Meetings Coverage

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) scrutinized the financing requirements for two special political missions today, delegates complained that the backstopping and support arrangements for such missions had to be considered in a more transparent and rational way, as it currently was diminishing the United Nations ability to give the missions the operational support they required.

With the much-anticipated United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development just a month away, and with intergovernmental negotiations on an outcome mired in minutiae, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called today for ambitious leadership to seize this “once in a generation opportunity” to transform ideas and aspirations into bold action “for the sake of our planet and our children”.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 26 entities for special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, and postponed consideration of 26 more — as well as of one request for reclassification of status — pending responses to questions posed by Committee members, as it continued its resumed 2012 session.

The General Assembly this morning, after defeating two proposals put forward by Syria, found consensus and endorsed the Secretariat’s recommendations for the accreditation of non-governmental organizations and other major groups currently not in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, but wishing to attend and contribute to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 35 entities for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, and postponed consideration of 10 applications, as it resumed its 2012 session.

Deploring the continuing refusal of coup leaders in Guinea-Bissau to reinstate legitimate authority in the country, the Security Council this afternoon imposed targeted sanctions against them, establishing a new monitoring committee and requesting the Secretary-General to be actively engaged in coordinating international efforts to help restore constitutional order.

Lamenting the enduring manifestations of the “Doctrine of Discovery” and other morally condemnable, socially unjust and racist policies used for centuries by colonizers as legal justification to disenfranchise indigenous peoples and seize their lands, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today urged the rejection of such “nefarious” dogmas, and encouraged measures that would redefine relations between native and aboriginal peoples and the State based on justice.

Deeply concerned over the slow pace of global economic recovery and the risk of another recession, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on Governments to strengthen their resolve to achieve sustainable development.

Demanding that Sudan and South Sudan demilitarize the disputed Abyei region and resolve a deadlock in putting in place previously agreed administrative arrangements, the Security Council this morning extended the mandate of the United Nations Interim Security Force for the area, known as UNISFA, for six months.

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in a brief meeting this afternoon, considered the draft agenda for its twelfth session, which, if approved, would be held at Headquarters from 20 to 31 May 2013.