Meetings Coverage

The Commission for Social Development wrapped up its forty-ninth session today by approving without a vote five draft resolutions calling for wide-ranging steps, from support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the upcoming review of the action plan on ageing to improving the lot of youth, persons with disabilities and families.

The Security Council today failed to adopt a text that would have described as “illegal” Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 while reiterating demands that all settlement activity cease immediately.

The Economic and Social Council today forwarded to the General Assembly a resolution concerning the structure of the World Food Programme’s Executive Board, essentially maintaining the current distribution of seats and rotation pattern.

The Commission for Social Development took up five draft resolutions today as it approached the end of its forty-ninth session, built around the theme of poverty eradication.

As Haiti prepared for its second round of presidential elections on 20 March, United Nations officials told the Economic and Social Council today that political stability in the Caribbean nation could only be achieved by Haitians themselves, urging that utmost care be taken to ensure the appointment of a responsible Government to lead the people through the next stage of recovery and reconstruction.

Social policy could only be transformative and successful in reducing poverty and putting a nation on a path to sustainable, equitable growth if it was integral to policies that addressed broader socioeconomic and political goals, Sarah Cook, Director of the UNRISD, told the Commission on Social Development today as it continued its forty-ninth session.

There was a pressing need to launch the internationally-mandated dialogue between authorities in Kosovo and Serbia, long delayed by political turmoil in Kosovo, and to work towards viable cooperation on peace and security as well as other critical issues facing the region, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council today.

The Security Council today authorized a three-month extension of the temporary redeployment of infantry and aviation units from the United Nations Mission in Liberia to the Organization’s Operation in Côte d’Ivoire.

Setting out the priorities for the 2011 term in the Chair of the OSCE, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister stressed today the values that the regional body held in common with the United Nations and called for greater cooperation to expand peace, advance human rights, generate sustainable development and build a safer world.

Acting on a number of organizational issues, the Economic and Social Council today decided that its meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions, World Trade Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) would be held at Headquarters on 10 and 11 March. Approving the provisional agenda for its 2011 substantive session, as orally corrected, the Council also adopted working arrangements for that four-week session.