The Security Council failed today to adopt a draft resolution that would have demanded civilian protection in Ukraine and called for unhindered access for humanitarian assistance, as several delegates rejected the text as an attempt by the Russian Federation to justify its aggression against its neighbour.
The General Assembly resumed its emergency special session today to discuss two competing draft resolutions on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine — one that implicates the Russian Federation’s military offensive in the unfolding humanitarian crisis and the other that makes no mention of Moscow’s aggression against its neighbour.
Despite progress in bringing women to the table when shaping climate change responses, more must be done to ensure equality in local to global decision-making roles, delegates and civil society representatives said today, as the Commission on the Status of Women concluded the general discussion segment of its sixty-sixth session.
Speakers in the Security Council today denounced Israel’s continued settlement activities, evictions and demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures, as the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process expressed regret that there had been “little progress” made by the sides in upholding obligations under the landmark resolution 2334 (2016).
The Special Committee on Decolonization decided today to hold the 2022 Pacific Regional Seminar in Castries, Saint Lucia, from 11 to 13 May, with a view to evaluating the colonial status of the 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories that remain under its purview.
The United Nations is still not aware of any biological weapons programme being conducted in Ukraine, the senior disarmament official told the Security Council today, responding to fresh allegations by the Russian Federation of the existence of such research.
As the Intergovernmental Conference, tasked with drafting a legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity, concluded its fourth session today, delegates decided to hold a fifth session with the goal of finalizing a new treaty and stressed the need to facilitate greater participation to allow all countries and communities to have a say in how marine resources existing outside of national jurisdiction should be shared.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated rising, pervasive and deeply rooted systemic racism around the world that must be dismantled and exorcised — including through reparations — speakers said today as the General Assembly commemorated the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, observed annually on 21 March, date of the 1960 massacre in Sharpeville, South Africa.
The Commission on the Status of Women continued its work today, hearing presentations from 12 Member States about their national efforts to implement the agreed outcome on its 2017 session’s theme “Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work”.
Member States today moved closer toward helping the world’s most vulnerable countries pull out of poverty and debt, recover from the pandemic and meet ongoing climate challenges by adopting, through consensus, a resolution that lays down a 10-year blueprint called the Doha Programme of Action.
