Committee Continues Consideration of 2001 Least Developed Countries Conference
Presentations Made by Heads of FAO, IFAD and WFP; Deputy Secretary General, Council and General Assembly Presidents Also Speak
The Economic and Social Council met this morning to hold an unprecedented discussion of the subject of Eliminating Hunger in the New Millennium.
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met this afternoon to consider the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, which is scheduled to be held from 14 to 20 May 2001 in Brussels.
High debt burdens continued to be a critical obstacle to poverty reduction in many developing countries, the representative of Canada told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) as it met this afternoon to continue its consideration of macroeconomic policy questions.
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) this afternoon elected by acclamation Anne Barrington (Ireland) and Mauricio Escanero (Mexico) as Vice- Chairmen. The Committee also adopted its programme of work, as orally amended, for the fifty-fifth session.
CORRECTION
The statement of the representative of Syria, which appears on pages 9 and 10 of Press Release ECOSOC/5929 of 28 July, should read, as follows:
The United Nations Economic and Social Council today adopted by consensus a resolution to establish a Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues -- an unprecedented event in the international community. Today's action was the latest step in a long process initiated in 1993, when the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights first proposed such a forum.
