Meetings Coverage

By raising the voices of persons with disabilities to the highest levels of Government and decision-making, their participation in political and public life — a critical human right in itself — also formed the bedrock for many other rights, participants in the Fourth Conference of States Parties to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities said today.

There were ongoing investigations into previously reported violations of sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear programme, as well as new complaints about its launching of ballistic missiles, the Chair of the Security Council Committee created to monitor implementation of those measures said today.

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro today urged delegates from Governments and civil society to build on the early success of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by promoting the issue beyond the walls of the United Nations and telling the world that disabled people could make enormous contributions to progress.

BONN, 5 September — The sixty-fourth annual Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organization (DPI/NGO) Conference, which focused on the role of civil society in creating and maintaining sustainable communities and developing responsive citizens, closed its three-day session this afternoon, with a call to action that encouraged participants to continue the dialogue they had begun in Bonn and to add action to all the talk.

BONN, 5 September – If the movement towards sustainable societies was to advance, civil society must encourage people to realize that their local concerns were also global concerns, speakers said during this morning’s fourth and final round-table discussion of the sixty-fourth annual DPI/NGO Conference in Bonn.

BONN, 4 September — Participants in the sixty-fourth annual Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organization (DPI/NGO) Conference were urged this afternoon not to grow discouraged in the face of so many seemingly intractable problems because their individual actions combined to make a big difference in the world.

BONN, 4 September — Speakers at this morning’s DPI/NGO Conference round table held a spirited discussion on the role of the green economy, not only in environmental stewardship, but also in ending poverty and advancing social justice.

BONN, 3 September — Stressing that consumption habits had to change if people really wanted to address the growing environmental crisis, civil society representatives called on all sectors of society to use more responsible and sustainable consumption and production practices, as the sixty-fourth annual Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organization (DPI/NGO) Conference continued in Bonn, Germany, this afternoon.

BONN, 3 September — “We are exhausting the capacity of our planet to guarantee our sustainable future,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a video message today as the sixty-fourth annual United Nations DPI/NGO Conference opened in Bonn, Germany. “The solution lies in a fundamental transformation of our consumption patterns and lifestyles,” he added, thanking the large number of representatives from non-governmental organizations in attendance.

Stressing that the voluntary moratoriums of nuclear-weapon States were no substitute for a legal prohibition, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro today urged Governments that had not yet done so to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and bolster other efforts to create a world free of nuclear testing and nuclear weapons.