Meetings Coverage

Agreeing unanimously on the centrality of human rights to an effective, fair and humane criminal justice system, the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice concluded in Salvador, Brazil, today with the adoption of a political declaration calling for greater scrutiny of the rules governing the treatment of prisoners, stronger national child-protection laws and more State action to prevent violence against women and migrant workers, among other issues.

The annual United Nations forum on indigenous issues opened today with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling on Member States to promote development while respecting indigenous cultures and traditions, and with the Government of New Zealand taking the opportunity to announce that it would reverse its decision and support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples.

Following recent international action aimed at reducing the threat of nuclear weapons, participants in a special General Assembly debate today looked towards further progress in long-stalled efforts to bolster the control regimes for weapons of mass destruction and conventional arms.

The Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice had put the world’s criminal justice system on trial, but the case could be dismissed for lack of evidence, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Director-General of the Organization’s Vienna Office, said today, as the event’s high-level segment continued in Salvador, Brazil.

Delegates at a special, three-day segment of the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice urged members this afternoon to take concrete action in the next five years, building upon “spectacular breakthroughs” on controversial issues relating to the prosecution, sentencing and custody of offenders, and on a possible new treaty on emerging forms of transnational offences such as cybercrime.

SALVADOR, Brazil, 16 April -- An overhaul of criminal justice systems in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe was needed to reduce inhumane overcrowding in prisons ‑‑ a major cause of recidivism which did nothing to improve public safety, speakers said today as the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice continued in Salvador, Brazil.

The Security Council today emphasized the critical importance of post-conflict peacebuilding as the “foundation for building sustainable peace and development in the aftermath of conflict”, and highlighted the need for effective peacebuilding strategies to ensure durable peace and development.

Concerned that 9 million children under 5 years old died each year from largely preventable conditions, and that persistent health inequities, both among and within countries, were impeding improved health outcomes, the Commission on Population and Development today concluded its forty-third session by reaffirming the values of primary health care -– including universal access to services -- as the basis for strengthening health systems.

Expressing optimism that obstacles to a comprehensive anti-terrorism convention could finally be overcome, members of the General Assembly committee negotiating that text recommended this morning that the Assembly’s Sixth Committee (Legal) establish a working group for that purpose during its sixty-fifth session.

After three weeks of intensive deliberations, the Disarmament Commission had not succeeded in distinguishing its 2010 session from its previous meetings over the past 11 years, that body’s Chair said today as it concluded its annual substantive session.