Meetings Coverage

Meeting in plenary this afternoon, the United Nations Forum on Forests again facilitated the “cross-fertilization” of information between its two working groups, and assessed their respective progress.

During the second day of deliberations at its 2011 session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) recommended special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council for 17 organizations and roster status for one, while it postponed consideration of 39 other applications pending receipt of additional information from the civil society groups.

The Chairperson of the United Nations Forum on Forests introduced today the draft declaration expected from its upcoming ministerial segment and the draft omnibus resolution anticipated to form the main outcome of the current two-week session.

Recalling that civil society involvement in the 2010 Millennium Development Goals summit this past September had influenced the outcome of that gathering of world leaders, Nikhil Seth, Director, Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, stressed time management in the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations as the key to coping with the increasing enthusiasm of such groups wishing to work more closely with the United Nations.

Expressing deep concern at the challenges to Member States and the United Nations humanitarian response capacity to deal with the consequences of natural disasters, General Assembly delegates today urged updating early warning systems, disaster preparedness and risk reduction measures at all levels to fulfil pledges made in the 2005 Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015, a global blueprint to reduce social, economic and environmental losses caused by such emergencies.

Midway through its two-week session, the United Nations Forum on Forests took stock this afternoon of the progress made by its two working groups, while considering plans for its work during the second week.

While early indications of a week’s worth of balloting pointed to an overwhelming vote in favour of Southern Sudan’s secession, senior United Nations officials expressed deep concern in the Security Council today over renewed violence in North and South Darfur, and issued a stern warning that violence remained an “ever present threat” in the disputed, oil-rich border area of Abyei, absent a permanent settlement of its status.

The incoming Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission today pledged to strengthen that body’s role within the United Nations in order to resolve disputes and restore peace and hope to nations emerging from conflict.

The loss and degradation of the world’s forests continued at a high rate owing to neglect of the social and cultural factors of forestry, Lambert Okrah, focal point for non-governmental organizations, said today as the United Nations Forum on Forests held the multi-stakeholder dialogue segment of its ninth session.

As pirates tightened their grip in the waters off the Somali coast and surrounding Indian Ocean, the Secretary-General’s top adviser on the legal issues related to that menace proposed a series of far-reaching measures to the Security Council today on how to lift the legal constraints to prosecute and imprison the pirates and criminalize their sea-borne raids in all States.