Meetings Coverage

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.

As he briefed the Security Council today on the institutional changes the United Nations was putting in place to bolster its rule-of-law activities, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said that, while the effort was delivering results, broader support for improved data collection was needed so the Organization could better measure impact on the ground, especially in countries affected by conflict.

Urging broad-based support as Libya and its people pressed ahead with a challenging political transition, the top United Nations official in the country warned the Security Council today that, despite promising institutional reforms, the new Libyan authorities would still need to take tough decisions on such key issues as constitution-making, transitional justice and security sector reform.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) today recommended the accreditation of seven groups to the Economic and Social Council and postponed consideration of 21 applications, pending responses to questions posed by members.

Beginning the second week of its 2013 session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today added four groups to the more than 3,500 it has accredited since its creation in 1946, and postponed consideration of 34 applications, pending responses to questions posed by members.

The new Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission today urged members to “put our heads together” on ways to reinforce the body’s founding vision — providing strategic advice and harnessing expertise and financing to help post-conflict countries avoid sliding back into war or chaos — so that in 2013, the Commission could gain its rightful place within the United Nations peacebuilding architecture and beyond.

The Economic and Social Council today elected Néstor Osorio (Colombia) President of the 54-member body as it began its work for 2013, which would entail addressing such challenges as the implementation of internationally agreed development goals.

Urging the Security Council to maintain its strong support for the leaders and countries of West Africa, the Head of the United Nations Office there called for greater international attention to a raft of complex challenges plaguing the region, where notable political progress was being offset by the ongoing crisis in Mali and the rise of organized crime and terrorism in the Sahel and other areas.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, concluding its first week of examining applications for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, today added nine groups to the more than 3,500 it has accredited since its creation in 1946.