Languages play a crucial role in our daily lives. They are not only our first medium for communication, education and social integration, but are also at the heart of each person’s unique identity, cultural history and memory. The ongoing loss of Indigenous languages is particularly devastating, as the complex knowledges and cultures they foster are increasingly being recognized as strategic resources for good governance, peacebuilding, reconciliation, and sustainable development.

The Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD) of the Department of Economic and Social affairs (UNDESA) is organizing an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on “Family policies for inclusive societies”, 15-16 May 2018 at UN Headquarters in New York. In its recent resolution on family issues, the General Assembly invited Member States to invest in a variety of family-oriented policies and programmes, as important tools for, inter alia, fighting poverty, social exclusion and inequality, promoting work-family balance and gender equ

To raise awareness of the importance of Braille for approximately 1.3 billion people living with some form of distance or near vision impairment, on Friday the United Nations is observing the first official World Braille Day.

The Division for Inclusive Social Development of the Department of Economic and Social affairs (UNDESA) in collaboration with the Doha International Family Institute (DIFI), a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, and the International Federation for Family Development (IFFD), is organizing an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on “The Role of Families and Family Policy in Supporting Youth Transitions” to be held 11-12 December 2018 in Doha in Qatar.

On 12 December 2012, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed a resolution urging countries to accelerate progress toward universal health coverage (UHC) – the idea that everyone, everywhere should have access to quality, affordable health care - as an essential priority for international development. On 12 December 2017, the United Nations proclaimed 12 December as International Universal Health Coverage Day (UHC Day) by resolution 72/138.

Every year, the Indigenous Peoples in Development Branch within the Division of Inclusive Social Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs organizes an international expert group meeting (EGM) on a theme recommended by the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and endorsed by the Economic and Social Council. In 2019, the expert group meeting will be held on the theme “Conservation and the rights of indigenous peoples” as recommended by the Permanent Forum at its 2018 annual session.

The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly at its 73rd session adopted a new resolution on the “Rights of indigenous peoples”. The resolution reaffirmed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which addresses the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples.

Please send information on major international disability events, for possible inclusion in the list to enable@un.org

Vacancies to be filled from January 2020 to December 2022

The current membership of the Permanent Forum is due to expire at the end of 2019.

Nominations are now requested for the three-year period from January 2020 until December 2022. Current members who have served the maximum of two terms (six years) as Permanent Forum members cannot be nominated for a further term.

There has been much progress in improving the availability, quality and comparability of income and wealth inequality data. Several cross-national databases containing summary inequality statistics are now available.