Meetings Coverage

GENEVA, 20 May (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction) — clear roles and mandates are frequently lacking from national platforms for disaster risk reduction, said several government representatives meeting today on the international framework for disaster risk reduction to be adopted in 2015. To be effective, such platforms should involve coordination among all the relevant actors, including the private sector and civil society, which were also part of this morning’s discussions.

The General Assembly, working through its busy agenda, today adopted five resolutions and one decision on a wide range of items, including on the self-determination of French Polynesia and on peace and cooperation in the South Atlantic.

Member States’ timely payment of assessed contributions and full reimbursement to troop-contributing countries was critical in maintaining the Organization’s financial health, delegations told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today as they reviewed a briefing on the Organization’s budgetary affairs.

After placing great demands on the environment for decades, “we stand on the mountain of development and, for the first time, Mother Earth is sending invoices back”, the General Assembly heard today during a high-level thematic debate aimed at balancing environment and development by mapping out a practical and policy pathway that had at its core the interdependency between water and energy.

An already challenging situation in the Central African Republic had descended into a “state of anarchy and total disregard for international law”, as elements of the Séléka rebel group — which had seized power in a 24 March coup d’état — had turned their vengeance against an innocent population, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council today.

As the General Assembly took action on a resolution addressing the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic, delegations strongly condemned the ongoing violence and called for involved parties to immediately end the hostilities on all sides, and work together for an inclusive Syrian-led political transition to a democratic, pluralistic political system.

Given its transnational nature, combating the scourge of human trafficking required utmost international cooperation and coordination, several speakers said in the General Assembly today as it continued its high-level meeting on the appraisal of the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s political leaders faced an increasingly stark choice, the United Nations High Representative in that country told the Security Council today, stressing that they could either “fail together” by remaining mired in disagreements or “succeed together” by reaching healthy compromises and standing firm against those who sought to reopen wounds of the past.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today scrutinized the Secretariat’s various reports on cross-cutting aspects of United Nations peacekeeping operations and their support account, most delegates hailed progress made towards stamping out sexual abuse by peacekeepers and implementing the Global Field Support Strategy, but offered divergent views on the peacekeeping budget proposed for the July 2013 to June 2014 period.

The international community could end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition sustainably by 2025 through holistic and “win-win” sustainable agriculture approaches, the head of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said this morning.