Meetings Coverage

With an estimated 75 million young people out of work around the world — nearly one in four in some parts — rapid action was needed to stimulate job creation, give young people and other excluded groups a voice in decision-making and institute schemes for social protection floors, the Commission for Social Development heard today as it continued its fifty-first session.

The High-level General Assembly Meeting on Disability and Development — to be held in September — would provide an historic opportunity to chart the way towards a truly inclusive development agenda while empowering the world’s 1 billion disabled persons as both agents and beneficiaries of change, the Commission for Social Development heard today as it moved into week two of its fifty-first session.

Faced with expanding inequality and widening gaps between rich and poor, world leaders poised to devise a new development agenda for the post-2015 era should embark upon a “new discussion” about the often-neglected social dimension of sustainable development, speakers urged today as the Commission for Social Development continued its fifty-first session.

Wrapping up the first part of its regular session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today adopted its draft 2013 report, which contains the list of 159 NGOs recommended for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council.

Governments must promote policies aimed at providing decent jobs as protection against poverty — which a delegate described as “the source of all ills”, including poor health and stalled economic growth — the Commission for Social Development heard today as it explored linkages between empowerment and poverty eradication.

The co-leaders of the recent Security Council mission to Yemen reported today that, with the first phase of the country’s nascent political transition successfully completed, President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi had warned of “deep challenges” ahead, as his Government laboured to create “a new Yemen, built on the aspirations of the youth that occupied the squares” around the capital, Sana’a.

With the world at a critical juncture in the lead-up to the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda, poverty eradication, social integration and employment must play a pivotal role in defining that agenda, the Commission for Social Development heard today as it resumed its fifty-first session.

Despite recent political progress towards the development of a much-needed transitional road map in Guinea-Bissau — which would include the formation of an inclusive transitional government, fair and transparent elections and stability during the post-elections period — the situation in that country was still marked by fear, insecurity and impunity, said a top United Nations political official, as he briefed the Security Council this afternoon.

While the General Assembly’s recent decision to enhance the status of Palestine at the United Nations had “resonated deeply” within the Organization, international re-engagement would be meaningless without serious commitments by the parties concerned to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended that the Economic and Social Council grant special consultative status to 12 applicants, and postponed consideration of 23 applicants as it wrapped up the bulk of its work during the current regular session. It also removed 15 NGOs from the review list for having failed to respond to inquiries despite three reminders from the Secretariat.