Meetings Coverage

Following a fatal explosion at a demonstration in northern Kosovo last Friday, the President of Serbia blamed tensions there on the enclave’s unilateral declaration of independence, while the Secretary-General’s Special Representative called on all parties to refrain from provocative statements, as the Security Council held a meeting on the subject today.

In her first address to the United Nations in 53 years, Queen Elizabeth II lauded the Organization today for its work over the past six decades in fostering peace, reducing poverty and providing emergency aid to millions of people, while calling for leadership in tackling new and emerging challenges.

Improving global health required a life-cycle approach, providing essential health services in an integrated package that included maternal, newborn and child health, sexual and reproductive health, and adequate budgeting for HIV/AIDS and malaria, United Nations experts stressed today as the Economic and Social Council opened its coordination segment under the theme of “implementing the internationally agreed development goals and commitments in regard to global public health”.

The United Nations African Meeting on the Question of Palestine closed today in Rabat, Morocco, with a call to the Security Council to act to prevent the further deterioration of conditions in East Jerusalem due to Israeli efforts to unilaterally change the character of the City.

The General Assembly today voted unanimously to create a new body for accelerating gender equality and women’s empowerment, crowning four-years of tough negotiations to streamline and raise the profile of the United Nations activities to promote the rights of women and girls.

Reaffirming the vital role of women as agents of development, the ministers and heads of delegations participating in the high-level segment of the Economic and Social Council’s 2010 substantive session declared today that gender equality, empowerment of women, the full enjoyment of their human rights, and the eradication of poverty were essential to socio-economic development, including achievement of all of the Millennium Development Goals.

As the United Nations African Meeting on the Question of Palestine opened today in Rabat, Morocco, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other participants stressed that resolving the status of Jerusalem was priority for peace in the Middle East, and that unilateral Israeli activity to change the facts on the ground there must cease.

In parallel meetings today, the Economic and Social Council wrapped up its Annual Ministerial Review, spotlighting actions and progress aimed at achieving the global agenda on women’s issues, as it also began its general debate, which heard nearly 50 Government delegations outline their efforts to promote higher standards of living, full employment and socio-economic progress — particularly for women and girls — at home and abroad.

The Security Council today renewed the mandate of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has supervised the ceasefire between Israel and Syria since 1974, forthe next sixth months, until 31 December.

Briefing the Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan today, the top United Nations envoy in that country stressed the importance of maintaining resilience in the year ahead, with events in the first half of 2010 — the consultative Peace Jirga, a follow-up conference in Kabul and progress on elections — providing reassurance that, despite the increased attacks by insurgents on civilians, major political aims were broadly on track.