Meetings Coverage

The General Assembly today adopted, by consensus, a decision establishing the composition of the 30-country Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, as called for by the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (“Rio+20”) outcome document, entitled “The Future We Want”.

Resolved to strengthen the United Nations central role in peacekeeping, the Security Council coalesced around a resolution — the first of its kind in 10 years — which recognized the importance of multidimensional peacekeeping and stressed that peacekeeping activities should be conducted in a manner that facilitated post-conflict peacebuilding, helped prevent a relapse into conflict and assisted progress towards sustainable peace and development.

Opening its regular session for 2013, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 37 organizations for special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, and deferred action on the status of 11 others.

A senior United Nations official today applauded the “remarkable progress” made by Côte d’Ivoire in the 18 months following a violent post-electoral crisis, but cautioned that a recent wave of attacks against national security targets meant the “strong and sustained support” of the Security Council would be required as the Ivorian Government worked in the coming year to heal political divisions in the country’s “sensitive” security context.

“Nothing can justify terrorism — ever,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared at the opening of a high-level meeting of the Security Council today, capped by a presidential statement expressing that body’s deep concern over the terrorist threat and its determination to combat it by all means in all its forms and manifestations, in line with the United Nations Charter and international law.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative reported to the Security Council this morning that agreements, including a ceasefire, had just been signed in Libreville to contain the latest wave of rebellion in the Central African Republic and define the modalities for power sharing and political transition.

The General Assembly this evening — resuming a meeting suspended on Friday pending agreement by its Budget Committee — concluded the main part of its sixty-seventh session with the adoption of 22 texts, two of which set the rates Member States will pay for the regular and peacekeeping budgets over the next three years.

Emerging from protracted negotiations that continued throughout the weekend, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today wrapped up the main part of its sixty-seventh session by recommending that the General Assembly retain the existing formula for assessing Member States’ financial contributions to the Organization’s regular budget and its peacekeeping operations during the 2013-2015 period.

The Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review of United Nations operational activities for development, and implementation of the outcome document of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, were among the most prominent concerns today as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) recommended its draft resolutions for adoption by the General Assembly.

In an open debate on post-conflict peacebuilding today, the Security Council emphasized the importance of inclusivity in advancing nationally owned and led processes and ensuring that the needs of all segments of society were taken into account and best served by an integrated approach based on coherence among political, security, development, human rights, rule of law and justice activities.