Meetings Coverage

Recommending consultative status with the Economic and Social Council for 13 entities today, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) also postponed its consideration of 44 other applications, pending receipt of additional information, and heard one complaint.

Civil society was the critical “eyes and ears on the ground”, Nikhil Seth, Director of ECOSOC Support and Coordination in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said as the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) opened its 2010 regular session today .

The Central African Republic configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission this morning called for stepped-up inter-community dialogue in the north of the country and improved funding for security sector reform, as it adopted its first biannual review of the strategic framework for peacebuilding.

The senior United Nations official in Kosovo, briefing the Security Council today, called on the authorities in that territory and in Serbia, as well as on Kosovo Albanians and Kosovo Serbs, to work together on creating a multi-ethnic society, protecting cultural heritages and ensuring regional prosperity.

Expressing sincere condolences to the Government and people of Haiti who suffered huge losses and untold suffering from the massive 12 January earthquake that levelled large parts of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, the General Assembly today adopted a consensus resolution calling for urgent actions to provide humanitarian assistance, emergency relief and rehabilitation measures to the strife-ridden Caribbean nation.

The Security Council this morning decided that the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) should make the necessary arrangements with the Government for its withdrawal by 15 May 2010, handing over any residual responsibilities in regard to its mandate of monitoring arms and armed personnel, as the 15-member body renewed the Mission’s mandate until that date.

The long-awaited presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire could take place before mid-2010 if solutions could be found to key outstanding issues relating to the electoral list and the country’s reunification, Choi Young-Jin, the senior United Nations official in the country, said in a briefing to the Security Council this morning.

The States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination met at United Nations Headquarters in New York today to elect nine members to the Convention’s monitoring body to serve for a two-year period, beginning on 19 January.

The creation of a Palestinian State coexisting in peace and security alongside Israel required more engagement by mediators of a “revitalized” Middle East Quartet –- the United States, Russian Federation, European Union and the United Nations –- as well as the active contribution of the Palestinian Rights Committee, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.

Overwhelming concern over massive destruction caused by a 7.0 earthquake in Haiti that impacted 3 million people – one third of the population -– and left much of the Caribbean nation in shambles dominated discussion in the Economic and Social Council today, as the 54-member body held its first organizational meeting of 2010.