Meetings Coverage

The need to fully institute multilingualism in the Organization’s information services, shore up the network of the United Nations Information Centres and increase the cost-effectiveness of the Department of Public Information were among the priority issues put forth today by delegates, as the Committee on Information continued its general debate this afternoon.

“It’s a fool’s paradise to believe that by controlling the lives of adolescents and young people, and denying them health-promoting — and perhaps life-saving — information and services, we are preserving our old way of life, or protecting the young from the dangers of the modern world,” one of among 40 speakers told the Commission on Population and Development today.

The Security Council could play an important role in addressing the obstacles that women faced in being informed about — and participating in — formal conflict resolution, especially by encouraging mediators to pay more attention to gender issues, Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-Women, said today, as she briefed the 15-member body on recent developments in the area of women, peace and security.

In the context of the current global financial crisis and the shifting geography of growth dynamics, Member States should embark upon “concerted and coherent” action to address current and future development challenges, experts said this morning as the Thirteenth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) held its third round table discussion in Doha.

DOHA, QATAR, 21 April — In the wake of the global financial crisis, it was important for the international community to be “inventive and courageous” in considering optimal economic models in their efforts to create a stable economic culture that would produce equitable growth, the incoming President of the Thirteenth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) said in Doha, Qatar, today.

Welcoming the recent agreement by Israeli and Palestinian leaders to exchange letters and expressing hope such moves would maintain positive momentum towards resuming peace negotiations, B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said today it was now important to transform that fragile opening into an opportunity to incrementally promote dialogue, as he briefed the Security Council on the latest developments in the region, including on the question of Palestine.

With the world in the midst of an economic recovery that was “fragile at best”, bold ideas were required to transform the path and process of globalization so that countries buffeted by the global financial crisis could gain relief through more equitable growth, improved market access, scaled-up investment and other forms of cooperation, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today in a message to the Thirteenth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

DOHA, QATAR, 23 April — Change in favour of equitable and sustainable development in the Arab world and around the globe must be achieved by women working side by side with men at all levels, Qatar Museums Authority Chairperson Sheikha Al Mayyasa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani said today as the Thirteenth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) held a high-level event on “Women in Development”.

DOHA, QATAR, 22 April — The global financial crisis could continue to plague both developing and developed countries for a long time unless market-based orthodoxies were questioned and resources better directed towards sustainable growth and development, experts said during today’s first round table of the Thirteenth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) in Doha, Qatar.

Acknowledging the unusually large attendance at the forty-fifth session of the Commission on Population and Development, which opened today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the turnout told only part of the story; the real message was the energy of the session and the presence of so many young people.