Access to the most basic transport infrastructure was still lacking in many areas around the world, while changes were needed at all levels of society in the management of chemicals, participants said during today’s Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting for the nineteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development.

Amid the ongoing tragedy of maternal mortality and morbidity, reaching the unreachable must be the goal of strategies to improve maternal health care, while securing the promises of sustainable development required that poor women be “dealt in” to a green economy, the Commission on the Status of Women heard today.

In an unprecedented move today, the United Nations General Assembly suspended Libya’s membership in the Human Rights Council, the Organization’s pre-eminent human rights body, expressing its deep concern about the situation in that country in the wake of Muammar Al-Qadhafi’s violent crackdown on anti-Government protestors.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

There was a need for a paradigm shift in the traditional perception of waste as a costly and unwanted by-product, to one whereby it would be regarded as a resource, panellists told the Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting for the nineteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development today.

The Security Council this morning requested the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to withdraw the military personnel that have been providing security for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, as it decided to end the authorization for that deployment.

Forced into early marriage and trafficked into sometimes life-threatening situations, girls around the world suffered some of the most severe forms of gender discrimination and abuse, civil society representatives told the Commission on the Status of Women today, urging that more be done by States and communities to ensure stronger penalties for perpetrators and legal recourse for victims.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Li Baodong (China):

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations resumed its work this afternoon to adopt the final report on the work of its 2011 regular session, which ran at Headquarters from 31 January to 9 February.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for International Women’s Day, observed on 8 March: