The Economic and Social Council today convened its first‑ever coordination segment, hearing from experts and delegates alike on how best to lay a path for tackling climate change, realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and forging an inclusive, resilient COVID-19 recovery plan.
Developing countries’ efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic are faltering amid ponderous debt burdens, “vaccine apartheid” and yawning chasms of inequality, said the keynote speaker at the Economic and Social Council’s annual Partnerships Forum today, adding that the wealth of a handful of billionaires is growing exponentially as the world continues to scramble.
The Peacebuilding Commission will promote global solidarity to help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on development and peacebuilding, while continuing to focus on empowering women and youth as critical partners in paving a path to sustainable peace, its newly elected Chair said today at the opening of its sixteenth session.
Calling for de-escalation of tensions along the borders between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, the United Nations political affairs chief told the Security Council today that any military intervention by one country in another would be against international law and the Charter of the United Nations, as Moscow denied any intention of launching a war on that neighbouring State.
The Security Council, acting unanimously today, decided to extend for three months the mandate of its special political mission in Libya.
Amid a bitter winter, continuing outbreaks of violence and an ever-deepening economic crisis, humanitarian needs in Syria are dwarfed by the funding available to meet them, the United Nations humanitarian chief informed the Security Council today, as speakers expressed concern about a harrowing siege in a prison in the north-east of the country.
The recent prison attack in north-east Syria serves as a reminder that Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) still poses a grave threat in the region, across Africa and beyond, the Head of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism told the Security Council today in a late-breaking meeting called by the Russian Federation.
The Security Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for six months — until on 31 July — expressing serious concern about several issues, including the continued violations of the military status quo along the ceasefire lines.
An attempted prison break by detainees with suspected links to Islamic State groups — and subsequent clashes involving international forces — have once again raised the spectre of resurgent terrorism in Syria’s decade-long civil conflict, the senior United Nations official in the country warned the Security Council today, as he briefed members on recent developments.
Now is the time for the Taliban to expand opportunity for the people of Afghanistan and demonstrate a real commitment to be a part of the global community, delegates in the Security Council stressed today, amid calls from the Secretary-General and other briefers to reverse sharp curtailments of human rights, first and foremost for women and girls.
