Meetings Coverage

Azerbaijan has instituted a wide array of initiatives for gender equality in a short period, despite recent conflict, experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women said today, while at the same time expressing concern over trafficking in persons, the low percentage of women in decision-making positions and other issues.

The General Assembly debate on protecting civilians from the most serious atrocities continued today as delegates wrestled with the extent to which States should step in to stop -– and ultimately prevent -- genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

Vowing to break the world’s paralysis in the face of mass atrocities typified by the Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge killing fields and the Rwanda genocide, delegates in the General Assembly grappled today with how -– and whether -– to implement the responsibility to protect (R2P) doctrine, during a half-day informal interactive dialogue.

Reaffirming the need to strengthen the synergy between Africa’s economic and social development programmes on the one hand, and its peace and security agenda on the other, the General Assembly today adopted a resolution that stressed the critical importance of a regional approach to conflict prevention on that continent.

The Security Council today extended through January 2010 the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), noting Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s assessment that the operation would be well placed to assist in the management of arms and armed personnel in line with the 25 June 2008 Agreement between political parties in the South Asian country.

Describing a “mixed picture of worrying signs amid solid progress”, the top United Nations envoy in Côte d’Ivoire today informed the Security Council that, even though the long-postponed presidential election in the divided West African country was set for 29 November, the panel organizing the poll was struggling to overcome bureaucratic hurdles, and the linked reunification process was not moving forward as planned.

Recognizing strides made by women in Japan in the 24 years since the country had acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, experts of the Committee that reviews compliance with that Convention today discussed ways the country could overcome entrenched attitudes and other persistent obstacles to women’s equality.

Following Bhutan’s historic transition last year to a democratic constitutional monarchy, the South Asian nation had harmonized a myriad of domestic laws in accordance with the women’s Convention and created its first national action plan to ensure gender equality in all aspects of economic, political and social life, Bhutan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said today.

Spain had made sweeping moves to empower and legally protect women since Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero took office in 2004, including enactment of laws to erase gender inequality and gender-based violence, as well as action plans to help the country’s most socially and economically vulnerable women gain access to health care, education, employment and housing, Spain’s first ever Minister of Equality, Bibiana Aido Almagro, said this afternoon.

The Security Council today called for more rapid and pointed efforts to build peace in the period immediately after strife-torn countries emerged from armed conflict, following a day-long open debate in which more than 40 speakers delivered statements.