Meetings Coverage

The General Assembly’s Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened today the second part of its resumed substantive session, what its Chairperson called the “final lap” in its annual marathon to take action on vital issues, such as funding United Nations peacekeeping operations and improving the Organization’s financial situation.

The urgent need to fulfil commitments to preserve the earth’s resources while building a better life for all was underlined today by officials and representatives of Member States and organizations, as the eighteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development opened at Headquarters this morning.

Calling on Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro to adhere fully to the military agreements reached with the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, the Security Council today extended the mandate of that Mission until 30 April 2011.

Stressing that prevailing development paradigms had often destroyed the political, economic and spiritual systems of indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues closed its ninth session today adopting its draft report, which, among other things, urged the United Nations to support indigenous peoples’ efforts to formulate their own development models based on concepts “underpinned by indigenous cosmologies, philosophies, values, cultures and identities”.

While indigenous peoples made undeniable contributions to humanity’s cultural diversity, representatives of aboriginal and native groups appealed today for help from the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, saying they still faced systemic discrimination and exclusion from political and economic power, forced ejection from their ancestral lands, and depredation from profit-hungry corporations bent on destroying their life-giving forests.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the Sudan for one year, until 30 April 2011, with the intention to renew it for further periods if required. Unanimously adopting resolution 1919 (2010), the Council called upon all parties to respect and abide without delay by their commitments under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, agreements on Darfur and the October 2006 Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement.

Governments, civil society and people around the world must stand up not only for freedom of the press but also for the public’s right to know, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today at a commemoration in advance of World Press Freedom Day, to be observed on 3 May. “People have a right to information that affects their lives,” he told the event, organized annually by the Department of Public Information.

In a resumed organizational session today, the Economic and Social Council adopted three draft decisions and filled vacancies in 18 of its subsidiary bodies, with five requiring votes.

Given the enormous efforts undertaken by the international community since the tragic 12 January earthquake, Haiti could return to the path of stability in two years if it received assistance in weathering the critical risks of the next 18 months, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the country told the Security Council today.

The Department of Public Information would continue to work with the Government of Angola to soon make the planned United Nations Information Centre in Luanda for Portuguese-speaking African countries a reality, Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, said this afternoon as the Committee on Information concluded the general debate of its thirty-second session.