Meetings Coverage

Accurate, disaggregated and updated data on population was essential for policymaking and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Commission on Population and Development heard today as it concluded its general debate.

Security Council members — citing multiple incidents involving the alleged use of weapons of mass destruction — vowed to redouble efforts to keep such deadly agents out of the hands of terrorists and other non-State actors, as they considered the work of the “1540 Committee” created for that purpose 14 years ago.

The Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples today approved Grenada as the host of its 2018 Pacific Regional Seminar, to be held from 9 to 11 May.

Despite an ever-precarious security situation that had claimed the lives of civilians and United Nations peacekeepers alike, the peace process in Mali was making headway along a timetable leading to elections later in 2018, the Secretary‑General’s Special Representative in that country told the Security Council today.

International migration was a global and multidimensional phenomenon of economic and social importance, the Commission on Population and Development heard today, as delegates shared ways to improve the management of flows, address key drivers and channel the potential of young people.

The Security Council, voting today on three separate draft resolutions in response to recent allegations of a chemical weapons attack in the Syrian town of Douma, failed to rally the votes needed to launch an “independent mechanism of investigation” into the incident, as delegates voiced frustration over the continued paralysis and the expanding rifts between nations.

Gateway cities were critical entry points for immigrants from a wide range of countries, serving as hubs for the collection, circulation and dispersion of goods, capital and people, the Commission on Population and Development heard today as it continued its annual session.

The Security Council today decided to extend for one year the mandate of the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH), while also laying out a staggered decrease in its uniformed personnel and requesting periodic progress assessments on the Secretary-General’s proposed drawdown and exit strategy.

In an emergency meeting following claims of chemical weapons attacks against civilians in Douma, Syria, both Security Council members and officials briefing them voiced grave concern that the use of such weapons risked being normalized — and could contribute to rapidly escalating tensions between world Powers — for the first time since the end of the cold war.

Rapid urbanization presented some of today’s greatest modern development challenges, yet if effectively harnessed — especially by the world’s 1 billion migrants — it could unleash tremendous growth opportunities, speakers said today as the Commission on Population and Development opened its fifty‑first session.