Meetings Coverage

Acting on the recommendation of the Secretary-General, the General Assembly this afternoon extended for two years the appointment of Navi Pillay as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

While lauding the improved financial situation of the United Nations at year-end 2011 and further progress since then, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this afternoon expressed concern over the continued cash shortages in peacekeeping operations and the subsequent lag in payments to countries providing troops and police to such operations.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Member States to strengthen individual and collective conflict mediation efforts through better coordination, funding and sharing of best practices, as high-level officials, academics, civil society leaders and others convened in an informal high-level General Assembly meeting on the topic today.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today voted to block the proposed closure of the application for consultative status of an organization alleged to have terrorist ties — including financial links to Osama bin Laden and the Al-Qaida network — as delegates felt the organization should be given a chance to respond to those allegations before such “abrupt” action was taken.

With the much-anticipated United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development just a month away, and with intergovernmental negotiations on an outcome mired in minutiae, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called today for ambitious leadership to seize this “once in a generation opportunity” to transform ideas and aspirations into bold action “for the sake of our planet and our children”.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 26 entities for special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, and postponed consideration of 26 more — as well as of one request for reclassification of status — pending responses to questions posed by Committee members, as it continued its resumed 2012 session.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) scrutinized the financing requirements for two special political missions today, delegates complained that the backstopping and support arrangements for such missions had to be considered in a more transparent and rational way, as it currently was diminishing the United Nations ability to give the missions the operational support they required.

The General Assembly this morning, after defeating two proposals put forward by Syria, found consensus and endorsed the Secretariat’s recommendations for the accreditation of non-governmental organizations and other major groups currently not in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, but wishing to attend and contribute to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

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.

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.