Meetings Coverage

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 14 entities for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, postponed its consideration of 36 applications and closed the file on 5 others.

With Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at an “extremely worrying impasse”, due largely to simmering tensions and frequent protests in East Jerusalem, ongoing deprivation in the Gaza Strip, and an uptick in militant rocket fire into Israel, a senior United Nations political official today warned the Security Council that the effort to forge a viable Middle East peace was seriously at risk.

The Peacebuilding Commission must create closer ties with the Bretton Woods institutions in 2010, in addition to a more structured relationship with the Security Council and streamlined working methods to better and more swiftly help post-conflict countries sustain peace and development, Peter Wittig (Germany), the newly elected Chairperson of the Commission’s Organizational Committee, said today.

Recommending consultative status with the Economic and Social Council for 8 entities today, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) also postponed its consideration of 34 other applications, pending receipt of additional information, and held a discussion about its working methods.

Recommending consultative status with the Economic and Social Council for 13 entities today, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) also postponed its consideration of 44 other applications, pending receipt of additional information, and heard one complaint.

The Central African Republic configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission this morning called for stepped-up inter-community dialogue in the north of the country and improved funding for security sector reform, as it adopted its first biannual review of the strategic framework for peacebuilding.

Civil society was the critical “eyes and ears on the ground”, Nikhil Seth, Director of ECOSOC Support and Coordination in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said as the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) opened its 2010 regular session today .

The senior United Nations official in Kosovo, briefing the Security Council today, called on the authorities in that territory and in Serbia, as well as on Kosovo Albanians and Kosovo Serbs, to work together on creating a multi-ethnic society, protecting cultural heritages and ensuring regional prosperity.

Expressing sincere condolences to the Government and people of Haiti who suffered huge losses and untold suffering from the massive 12 January earthquake that levelled large parts of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, the General Assembly today adopted a consensus resolution calling for urgent actions to provide humanitarian assistance, emergency relief and rehabilitation measures to the strife-ridden Caribbean nation.

The long-awaited presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire could take place before mid-2010 if solutions could be found to key outstanding issues relating to the electoral list and the country’s reunification, Choi Young-Jin, the senior United Nations official in the country, said in a briefing to the Security Council this morning.