Meetings Coverage

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 35 entities for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, and postponed consideration of 10 applications, as it resumed its 2012 session.

Lamenting the enduring manifestations of the “Doctrine of Discovery” and other morally condemnable, socially unjust and racist policies used for centuries by colonizers as legal justification to disenfranchise indigenous peoples and seize their lands, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today urged the rejection of such “nefarious” dogmas, and encouraged measures that would redefine relations between native and aboriginal peoples and the State based on justice.

Deeply concerned over the slow pace of global economic recovery and the risk of another recession, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on Governments to strengthen their resolve to achieve sustainable development.

Deploring the continuing refusal of coup leaders in Guinea-Bissau to reinstate legitimate authority in the country, the Security Council this afternoon imposed targeted sanctions against them, establishing a new monitoring committee and requesting the Secretary-General to be actively engaged in coordinating international efforts to help restore constitutional order.

Demanding that Sudan and South Sudan demilitarize the disputed Abyei region and resolve a deadlock in putting in place previously agreed administrative arrangements, the Security Council this morning extended the mandate of the United Nations Interim Security Force for the area, known as UNISFA, for six months.

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in a brief meeting this afternoon, considered the draft agenda for its twelfth session, which, if approved, would be held at Headquarters from 20 to 31 May 2013.

Hailing the adoption in 2007 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a “landmark” achievement borne of unprecedented cooperation among indigenous civil society groups and Governments, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this morning urged the entire international community to bolster support for native peoples and ensure that their rights, languages and cultural heritage was protected.

The international community must “take a collective stand” to create a new global growth model based on stable economies, social equality, decent job opportunities and greater financial regulation to tackle the ongoing global economic crisis, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and senior economic officials said today at Headquarters.

The United Nations General Assembly today narrowly avoided an “intense, politically complex” procedural floor battle after the Swiss Ambassador withdrew a contentious draft resolution, sponsored by “small” countries, containing a set of recommendations for making the Security Council more transparent and accountable.

Senior United Nations officials and Government leaders today urgently called for strong global action to tackle transnational organized crime and drug trafficking in Central America, which they said had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the region already and now was spreading to Europe and Africa.