Meetings Coverage

Despite a decade of significant social and economic changes and the 2009 global economic and financial crisis, the Russian Federation remained intent on using legislation, judicial reforms and increases in social benefit payments to improve women’s status, members of a well-represented Russian delegation told the Women’s Anti-Discrimination Committee today.

Firm national action on security sector and other reforms, as well as sustained international attention to the Government’s performance and regional issues, could help overcome threats to stability in Guinea-Bissau, the senior United Nations official in that country said in a briefing to the Security Council today.

Expressing grave concern at the increasing number of people affected by humanitarian emergencies, including those associated with natural hazards, the Economic and Social Council today pressed the United Nations, on one hand, to strengthen humanitarian capacities by transferring technology and expertise to developing nations, and urged Member States to develop disaster preparedness and risk reduction measures, on the other.

More than a year after the abrogation of its Constitution in April 2009, Fiji was working with a series of newly established decrees to ensure that the rights of women were protected as the South Pacific island nation shaped a new Constitution by 2012 before holding elections two years later, members of the Fiji Government delegation told the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today.

With natural disasters increasing in frequency and complicated, multiparty conflicts hampering the delivery of humanitarian assistance and endangering relief workers, senior United Nations officials joined diplomats today in stressing the urgent need for early preparedness and timely, predictable and coordinated efforts to respond to growing demands for effective humanitarian assistance.

Six months after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake ravaged Port-au-Prince and left some 1.6 million Haitians homeless, less than 2 per cent of the $10 billion pledged to help rebuild the country had been received, according to the Haitian Government’s Special Envoy to the Secretary-General, who addressed the Economic and Social Council today in a joint event of its operational and humanitarian segments, on transitioning from relief to development in the Caribbean nation.

Argentina, despite two economic crises in the past decade — one domestic and one global — and major political changes, had firmly rooted the Women’s Anti-Discrimination Convention in its national policies, governmental structures, educational and social programmes, and health initiatives, said its delegation today, reporting to the body that monitors compliance with that human rights treaty.

Amid daunting difficulties and persistent challenges, West Africa had made “significant progress” in crisis prevention and peacebuilding over the past six months, due to the will of its people and the cooperation of regional institutions, a top United Nations official told the Security Council today.

In an effort to raise awareness of the role women could play in maintaining peace and security around the world, the Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women urged Committee members to use the forty-sixth session, opening today, to recognize the tenth anniversary of the Security Council’s landmark resolution on women, peace and security.

Enhanced coordination was essential not only for the United Nations system to provide quality support for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals at the national level, but also to streamline relevant efforts, avoid duplication, lower transaction costs, and simplify reporting methods, senior officials from the world body’s funds and programmes stressed today, as the Economic and Social Council continued its operational activities segment.