Meetings Coverage

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues this morning opened its eighth annual session aimed at finding ways to further implement the landmark 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which gained momentum last month when the Australian Government officially endorsed the accord after previously voting against it.

On the first day of its 2009 resumed session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations recommended consultative status with the Economic and Social Council for nine non-governmental organizations and postponed consideration of 29 applications pending receipt of more information.

Angela Kane, Under-Secretary-General for Management, painted a “mixed picture” of the United Nations financial health in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today, saying that, while 2008 had seen progress, a negative trend had emerged in 2009, with a growing number of States not fully meeting their financial obligations, an evolving situation whose outcome would depend largely on actions taken by Governments.

Concluding its annual two-week session this afternoon, the Committee on Information called on the United Nations Department of Public Information to continue to strengthen its role as the indispensable voice of the Organization by boosting awareness of a raft of current issues, increasing multilingualism, re‑evaluating all programmes and enhancing efficiency.

The Security Council this afternoon condemned the recent renewal in fighting in Somalia led by Al-Shabaab and other extremists, which constituted an attempt to remove the legitimate Transitional Federal Government there, and demanded that opposition groups immediately end their offensive, put down their arms, renounce violence and join reconciliation efforts.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took up the first three of more than a dozen peacekeeping budgets to be considered for the upcoming 2009/10 financial year, the Committee was told that projected delays in the deployment of troops to Sudan suggested the possibility of reductions to the amounts proposed by the Secretary-General for the multi-million dollar UNMIS and the billion-dollar UNAMID, although some States cautioned against underbudgeting.

A green revolution in Africa would only be possible if the approach to agricultural development on the continent underwent its own revolution, the Commission on Sustainable Development was told during the first of two plenary round tables today.

At the conclusion of its three-day review of the challenges and opportunities associated with the decolonization process today, participants of the 2009 Caribbean regional seminar on decolonization exchanged views on the impact of the event and considered the way forward in promoting the goals of the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2001-2010).

During the second day of its work in Saint Kitts and Nevis today, the Regional Seminar on the Implementation of the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2001-2010) took up the challenges and opportunities in the process of decolonization in the Non-Self-Governing Territories outside the Caribbean, and considered the role of the United Nations system in providing them with development assistance.

With the United Nations total peacekeeping budget ballooning to $8.2 billion in 2009-2010, speakers in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today stressed the importance of austerity in a weakened global economic climate, and timely, full payment of assessed contributions so that peacekeeping missions could effectively carry out their mandates.