Meetings Coverage

With the fate of the world’s nearly 7 billion people hanging in the balance, the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development would offer an historic opportunity to define the contours of a “green economy” and consider whether the existing institutional framework could adequately address all the cross-cutting issues affecting human well-being, speakers said today as they kicked off the second session of the Preparatory Committee for the Conference.

The Fifth Committee today approved the work plan for a three-week resumed session that will let delegates consider a Capital Master Plan now running more than $80 million over budget, the work of the Joint Inspection Unit, special political missions and other issues with financial implications for the 2010-2011 budget cycle.

The United Nations Meeting on the Question of Palestine this afternoon turned its attention to the bleak situation and conditions of confinement for Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, as it continued its examination of the urgent need to address the political prisoners’ plight.

The General Assembly decided this afternoon on new rules for the election of the 36 members of the Executive Board of the World Food Programme (WFP).

The Commission on the Status of Women today adopted two resolutions on mainstreaming gender equality in climate change policies and strategies, and women and the girl child and HIV/AIDS, and approved one text, by roll-call vote, on Palestinian women, to be sent to the Economic and Social Council for adoption. The 45-member Commission had been scheduled to conclude its fifty-fifth session today, but due to ongoing negotiations on its agreed conclusions, it was forced to suspend its work.

Closing its deliberations today, the Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting for the nineteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development adopted its report, which included a draft negotiating document for the Commission’s consideration in May.

The Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization today elected additional members of its bureau, as it continued its 2011 session, which runs at Headquarters from 28 February to 9 March.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations resumed its work this afternoon to adopt the final report on the work of its 2011 regular session, which ran at Headquarters from 31 January to 9 February.

The Security Council this morning requested the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to withdraw the military personnel that have been providing security for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, as it decided to end the authorization for that deployment.