Meetings Coverage

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro this morning made a strong call for creating a global green economy characterized by abundant jobs, sustainable livelihoods, dynamic economic growth and clean energy. Kicking off a day-long informal General Assembly thematic debate on “Green economy: a pathway to sustainable development”, she said the green economy also must address the menaces caused by climate change, notably food and energy insecurity and deforestation.

SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES, 1 June — In their second day of discussion, participants in the Caribbean regional seminar on decolonization today pressed the Special Committee on Decolonization charged with monitoring implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples to take a more active role in unlocking long-standing political stalemates that had bedevilled progress around the world

In a message to participants of the Caribbean regional seminar on decolonization, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon encouraged the Special Committee on Decolonization to work towards an action-oriented dialogue at all levels with the Non-Self Governing Territories and administering Powers alike, as he launched the work of the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2011-2020).

With several vexing issues needing resolution before a peaceful separation could occur in Sudan, senior United Nations officials briefed the Security Council today on the necessity of avoiding “an acrimonious divorce with lasting consequences” as they discussed the fate of the world body’s six-year-old mission in the country, whose mandate was set to expire on 9 July, the day on which the Government of South Sudan was poised officially to declare independence from Khartoum.

Protection of civilians, securing a commitment for indirect negotiations and planning for post-conflict peacebuilding were the key priorities of the United Nations in Libya, the Organization’s top political official told the Security Council this morning.

Concluding its tenth anniversary session today with the adoption of a draft report on that session, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues looked to its future work, welcoming the opportunity and full responsibility in playing a central role in preparations for the 2014 World Conference on Indigenous Peoples and underlining the need for the equal, direct and meaningful participation of indigenous communities during all stages of that landmark meeting.

A draft resolution concerning the financing of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was introduced today in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) by the representative of Argentina, on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China.

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, meeting today to discuss the provisional agenda for its next session, solidified its plans to hold discussions in 2012 on food security, human rights and the session’s proposed special theme, the “Doctrine of Discovery” — which some members stressed would be a “forward thinking” dialogue.

In a resumed organizational session today, the Economic and Social Council filled vacancies in three of its subsidiary bodies, electing members by secret ballot and by acclamation. Voting by secret ballot, the Council elected Iran to a four-year term on the Commission on Population and Development, beginning today and expiring at the close of that body’s forty-eighth session in 2015.

While well versed in overseeing the implementation of peace accords, the United Nations system had much less experience in supporting indigenous peoples and communities in conflict resolution, and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues should consider what kind of role it could play in addressing those gaps, that body was told today as it took up the report of its Special Rapporteur on the status of implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord of 1997.