Azerbaijan has instituted a wide array of initiatives for gender equality in a short period, despite recent conflict, experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women said today, while at the same time expressing concern over trafficking in persons, the low percentage of women in decision-making positions and other issues.

While praising Switzerland as a leader in human rights policy, experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women expressed concern over the difficulties of instituting country-wide policies for women’s equality given the federal system that gives great autonomy to its districts, which are known as cantons and communes.

Experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today recognized the efforts of a young, small-island nation –- Tuvalu –- to review its legal system from the top down for discriminatory practices, but expressed deep concern that traditional bias held sway in many areas.

Experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today recognized the recent legislative and policy efforts of Timor-Leste to improve the lot of women in the Southeast Asian island nation’s traditional patriarchal society, but expressed concern over continuing discriminatory practices in schools, the workplace and family life.

This statement was issued today by the bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on the situation in occupied East Jerusalem:

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs will kick off a three-part series of special events on climate change, beginning tomorrow, 13 October, with a focus on the state of the climate change negotiations, followed in the two succeeding weeks by events on the impacts and threats of climate change, and the opportunities for “green” growth.

A high-level United Nations conference on South-South cooperation is to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 1-3 December, 2009, the General Assembly has decided.

Acting without a vote, a meeting of States Parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights this afternoon elected MahjoubEl Haiba ( Morocco) to membership of the Human Rights Committee, to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Mohammed Ayat ( Morocco) from the Committee before the expiration of his term on 31 December 2012.

Twenty-two Member States pledged approximately $58 million today, during a pledging conference in support of United Nations development activities for 2010.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People today recommended adoption by the General Assembly of four draft resolutions concerning its work, the work of the Division for Palestinian Rights and of the Department of Public Information regarding the question of Palestine as well as the peaceful settlement of that question.