Meetings Coverage

The Special Committee on Decolonization this afternoon approved a draft resolution calling upon the Government of the United States to expedite a process that would allow the Puerto Rican people to exercise fully their inalienable right to self-determination and independence.

“We need to heed the call of our conscience, recognize that our interests are bound together, and act ‑‑ united ‑‑ with the urgency the times demand,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, as he opened a day-long forum on global health, in which representatives of Governments, United Nations agencies, the private sector and civil society explored ways to improve national health systems and maximize the impact of global health interventions.

The Security Council today condemned in the strongest terms the 25 May nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and tightened sanctions against it by blocking funding for nuclear, missile and proliferation activities through targeted sanctions on additional goods, persons and entities, widening the ban on arms imports-exports, and calling on Member States to inspect and destroy all banned cargo to and from that country, if they have reasonable grounds to suspect a violation.

John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, briefed the Security Council today on his recent trip to the Sudan, acknowledging the recent efforts of the Government to work more closely with humanitarian workers in north and south Sudan, but saying the situation in the south was of major concern, and a full return of humanitarian capability was still needed in Darfur.

Seven years after the civil war, the people of Sierra Leone wanted to see and feel the dividends of peace, said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today, at an unprecedented high-level special session of the Peacebuilding Commission, which launched a Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Sierra Leone and rallied international support around the Government’s unified development strategy.

Representatives of non-governmental organizations, as well as students and others attending today’s United Nations Public Forum in Support of the Palestinian People, discussed ways in which civil society could promote greater solidarity with the Palestinian people, and how they could join forces in backing a peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while stressing that a two-State solution was the only way.

The General Assembly this morning elected Ali Abdussalam Treki, a three-time Permanent Representative of Libya to the United Nations and former Foreign Minister, as President of its sixty-fourth session.

With Burundi entering a new phase in its efforts to emerge from a long civil war, support to socio-economic rebuilding and the 2010 elections could now be the focus of international efforts in the tiny Great Lakes country, the head of the Burundi arm of the Peacebuilding Commission told the Security Council today.

The United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine came to a close today with a statement in strong support of the two-State solution: Israel and Palestinian, living side by side in peace and security.

The United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine addressed the complex question of Jerusalem this morning, with experts warning that unless the issue was addressed immediately, a two-State solution would be impossible.