Meetings Coverage

Delegates of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) urged each other today to disrupt the five-year deadlock over the crucial issues that cut across all operations — including sexual exploitation and abuse, the safety of peacekeepers and environmental safeguards. At the opening day of a resumed session dedicated to its global peacekeeping operations, Member States also emphasized the need to adequately finance the 11 peacekeeping missions, which now have a proposed budget of $6.5 billion, and resolve the Organization’s ongoing liquidity crisis.

With core United Nations values under the greatest strain since the Organization’s founding, the Department of Global Communications is spearheading robust efforts to stem the tide of disinformation, counter attacks on human rights and tell the human stories on the front lines of conflict, the agency’s top official told the Committee on Information, as members opened their forty-fourth session today.

Extending the mandate of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) for three months today, the Security Council decided that the Mission will be led by a Tripoli-based Special Representative of the Secretary-General.

Speakers in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today denounced the persistent side-lining of their languages, cultures, traditions and identities, as they shed light on the myriad ways their rights are violated by Governments, companies or by ineffective policies that do not protect their communities.

The Commission on Population and Development ended its fifty-fifth session today, approving by consensus a draft resolution urging support for women, young people and other marginalized groups in efforts to achieve sustained and inclusive economic growth.

Syria’s continued failure to remedy outstanding issues prevents the international community from confirming the elimination of its chemical-weapons programme, the top United Nations disarmament official told the Security Council today as members traded allegations that the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is being politicized to suit national interests.

Speakers in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today pressed United Nations bodies across the system to expand resources and opportunities for indigenous representatives so that they may participate in the Organization’s work, with many calling out practices that prevent their voices from being heard and advocating for a greater focus by the Forum on breaking down barriers.

The Economic and Social Council concluded its annual financing for development forum today with the adoption of an outcome document highlighting the critical need for resources to deliver on the central promise of the United Nations framework for achieving a better, more sustainable future for all by 2030.

The Commission on Population and Development zeroed in today on the crucial work that the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs delivers to countries around the world as they cope with a range of demographic challenges that could impact realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Outlining a four-pronged new investigation strategy to the Security Council today, the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court pledged his commitment to delivering justice against crimes committed in Libya.