Meetings Coverage

RIO DE JANEIRO, 22 June — High-level officials of nearly every Member State meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, renewed their commitments to ensuring an “economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for our planet and for present and future generations”, as the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development — Rio+20 — closed this afternoon.

RIO DE JANEIRO, 21 June — Inequality — in both environmental and economic terms – took centre stage as the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development entered its second day, with many high-level participants emphasizing that a disproportionate share of the world’s woes still fell upon its poorest, smallest and least represented States.

The Special Committee on Decolonization continued its 2012 substantive session today with the approval, without a vote, of a draft resolution containing its report on decisions concerning organizational matters, as well as the report of the Pacific Regional Seminar on the Implementation of the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism, held in Quito from 30 May to 1 June 2012.

The General Assembly today, acting on the recommendations of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), adopted a peacekeeping budget of just more than $7 billion for the period 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2013.

RIO DE JANEIRO, 20 June — With the planet increasingly under stress from climate change and a human population exhausting life’s vital resources, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged delegates gathered in Rio de Janeiro to face “an existential reality”: the old model of economic and social advancement was broken and it was time to agree on a new blueprint to end poverty, ensure social equity and protect the environment.

The Security Council held a discussion today with the military commanders of key United Nations peacekeeping operations in Africa, the Middle East and Haiti, who highlighted important strategies for ensuring unity of command and synergy of efforts among the Organization’s 120,000 peacekeepers that would allow for their diverse qualities, skills and experience to have a “multiplying effect” on achieving common operational goals.

The 24-member Committee that monitors implementation of the 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories approved by consensus today an omnibus draft resolution on the questions of American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guam, Montserrat, Pitcairn, Saint Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands and United States Virgin Islands.

Sporadic clashes, military operations and announcements of settlement construction in the West Bank were challenging the positive environment created by recent fragile forward steps in the Israeli-Palestinian talks, the Security Council was told today, during a briefing on recent developments in the Middle East.

The Special Committee on Decolonization today approved three draft resolutions dealing with various aspects of its work, as it continued its session at Headquarters.

The Special Committee on Decolonization today called on the United States to expedite a process that would allow Puerto Ricans to fully exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence, requesting the General Assembly to consider the question of Puerto Rico comprehensively in all its aspects.