Meetings Coverage

The Commission on Population and Development, adopting a consensus resolution as it closed its forty-sixth session late in the evening, called on States to promote and protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all migrants and to take a comprehensive and balanced approach to the increasingly complex issue of migration.

Concerned that the circulation of weapons continued to pose “significant” risks to the stability of Côte d’Ivoire, the Security Council today extended its arms embargo, as well as financial and travel measures, against the West African nation, until 30 April 2014.

Resuming its 2013 organizational session, the Economic and Social Council met this morning to hold elections to fill vacant seats in its subsidiary bodies and adopt themes for some items of its upcoming substantive session.

The Security Council today unanimously approved the creation of a 12,600 member peacekeeping force in the West African nation of Mali, strongly condemning the January offensive by armed groups towards the south and stressing that terrorism could only be defeated by a sustained and comprehensive approach to isolate the terrorist threat.

Welcoming the commitment of the parties to continue the process of negotiation through United Nations sponsored talks to find a political solution to the long-standing dispute in Western Sahara, the Security Council today extended through 30 April 2014 the mandate of the United Nations Mission there.

It was now very clear how the United Nations should support the Somali Government through 2016, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs told the Security Council in a briefing this afternoon, citing the Secretary-General’s vision for a new United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia, grounded in real needs and a well-thought out analysis of the objective reality in that country.

Advances in science and technology not only improved living conditions in both developed and developing countries, but enhanced the lives of migrants and enabled progress towards internationally agreed development goals, a senior official of the Economic and Social Council told Population and Development Commission members in today’s session.

With the quest to unite the African continent and transform it into a region of economic prosperity and social justice never closer to fulfilment, senior United Nations officials today hailed the “rise of a new Africa”, but also called on the international community to engage much more resolutely to help bring to an end the conflicts that continued to tragically claim the lives of so many Africans.

Of the view that post-conflict peacebuilding must meet the expectation of ensuring the durability of the peace efforts that preceded it, speakers in the Security Council today reaffirmed the Peacebuilding Commission’s role to prevent a relapse of conflict and support the initiatives of recovering Governments and societies to own and lead the process of rebuilding and leaving the trauma behind.

The increasingly complex movement of international migrants — who now flowed circuitously between countries, bringing with them skills, ideas and capital — had a profound impact on families and communities around the world, declared speakers today as the Commission on Population and Development continued its forty-sixth session.