Meetings Coverage

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.

The ninth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests continued today with resounding calls for the empowerment of local communities — including indigenous and other vulnerable groups — to participate in forest governance.

As the United Nations Forum on Forests began its ninth session today, the world body’s top development official stressed the need for a people-centred approach to managing forest lands, which would take into account not only their environmental riches but also their economic, social and cultural value.

Stressing that institution-building was a critical part of peacebuilding in countries emerging from conflict, the Security Council acknowledged today the need to continue improving its support for those countries in order to sustain peace by creating national bodies that would promote democratic processes and socio-economic development.

“As we enter a new year, I am very concerned at the lack of progress towards peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.