Meetings Coverage

“Let us be united in our efforts to negotiate a powerful outcome document,” General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann said this morning as he appealed for Member States’ support and involvement in the few short weeks before the 1-3 June Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development.

At the end of the first week of its annual two-week session, the Commission on Sustainable Development was warned by its Chairperson that it must go further to overcome differences or it would risk falling short of its goal of fashioning critical global policies to address agriculture, drought, desertification, land use, rural development and sustainable development in Africa.

One year ago, exactly, Lebanon had been taken “to the brink of civil war and back”, Terje Roed-Larsen told the Security Council today, but, since then, thanks to an agreement between Lebanese political leaders brokered by the Emir of Qatar, the country’s domestic, political and security situation “has improved markedly”.

The Committee on Information concluded the general debate of its thirty-first annual session today, with Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Kiyo Akasaka pledging to “build on our achievements” and improve impact and performance.

Cautioning against increasing attempts to suppress Internet access, stifle Web-based journalism and censor news reporters, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged Governments to uphold freedom of opinion and expression for all journalists, bloggers and media professionals, “as a matter of principle, and because a free press is essential for building a better world”.

The International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace concluded this evening with a firm endorsement of the special role of national parliaments and inter-parliamentary organizations in advancing the faltering peace process.

Parliamentarians’ contribution to Israeli-Palestinian peace could only be a quiet, modest, unpretentious, bottom-up approach based on informed, impartial, balanced and genuine engagement between parliamentarians of the world and Israeli-Palestinian parliamentarians, out of whose ranks emerged the national leaders and main actors responsible for the actual task of peace-finding and making, the Cyprus Meeting heard today.

Legislators from Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, United States, United Kingdom and the Palestinian Legislative Council today considered prospects for re-starting the peace process in the wake of the military assault on Gaza, and their role in the new political landscape, as the United Nations International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace continued.

Seizing the opportunity for sustainable peace in the Central African Republic, afforded by the success of last year’s inclusive political talks and the decision by key rebel factions to disarm, the Peacebuilding Commission today endorsed an integrated strategy to steer the engagement and dialogue among the Government, the United Nations and other international partners.

As the United Nations International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace got under way in the capital city of Cyprus today, the focus was on “parliamentary diplomacy” as a means to shape public opinion and soften the ground for a resumption of political dialogue, both central to the pursuit of a peaceful settlement of the conflict.