The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC; French: Conseil économique et social des Nations unies, CESNU) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields of the organization, specifically in regards to the fifteen specialised agencies, the eight functional commissions, and the five regional commissions under its jurisdiction.ECOSOC serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and formulating policy recommendations addressed to member states and the United Nations System. It has 54 members. In addition to a rotating membership of 54 UN member states, over 1,600 nongovernmental organizations have consultative status with the Council to participate in the work of the United Nations.ECOSOC holds one four-week session each year in July, and since 1998 has also held an annual meeting in April with finance ministers heading key committees of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Additionally, the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), which reviews the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, is convened under the auspices of the Council every July.
Este artículo analiza el proyecto filosófico de Quine y, específicamente, la epistemología naturalizada. Respecto a este proyecto, el autor argumenta que la epistemología naturalizada no contribuye a la solución o disolución de los problemas de la epistemología tradicional, que las respuestas epistemológicas de Quine no resuelven tales cuestiones y que la imaginaria ciencia quineana es ininteligible y filosóficamente inútil. En contraste con esta postura, el autor propone concebir a la filosofía como una disciplina de análisis conceptual a priori.
This essay examines the link between ethics and politics in J.M. Coetzee’s Age of Iron, set during the violent repression of township uprisings in 1980s South Africa. The novel presents a fictional response to this crisis through the character of Mrs. Curren, a dying classics professor who writes to her estranged daughter, reflecting on her life and the country’s turmoil. Her intimate testimony offers an ethically charged perspective on political violence. This is contrasted with the public, performative attempts at atonement by ex-minister Adrian Vlok, a key figure in the oppressive regime. The essay argues that fiction can hold transformative power through its engagement with historical realities.
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health conditions are among the major development challenges of the 21st century. Their impact across the 2030 Agenda calls for a coordinated United Nations (UN) response. UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks (UNSDCFs) facilitate UN joint action by serving as strategic planning tools co-designed by the UN country team and government. This paper describes how NCDs and mental health are included in these frameworks by reviewing UNSDCF documents using a key term search and categorising the extracted content by intervention area. The results show that compared to the 2012–2015 period, when 34% of UNSDCFs included NCDs, there has been progress in their prioritisation. Of the 114 UNSDCFs launched between 2020 and 2024, 69% included NCDs and 75% included mental health. The lowest levels of NCD integration were found in the World Health Organization African, Eastern Mediterranean, and Americas regions, while the African and Western Pacific regions had the lowest levels including mental health. UNSDCFs referencing NCDs and mental health often did so broadly and were missing specific indicators and outputs, leading to reduced clarity of what is expected by the UN system and weaker accountability. NCD risk factors were found to be generally absent in UNSDCFs. These findings highlight the growing recognition of NCDs and mental health on the development agenda, yet their integration in UNSDCFs is often inadequate and requires a more synergistic and targeted approach that can be translated into whole-of-UN system action at country level.
To contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the asteroid Flora family, we analysed the reflectance spectra of 151 asteroids whose orbital characteristics align with this family, including 20 control objects. Following our analysis, using optical spectra acquired at the Guillermo Haro Astrophysical Observatory and applying the Bus & Binzel taxonomy, we propose new taxonomic classifications for 82 sample objects and confirm the published classifications for 65 of 69. Our results confirm the predominance of S-type asteroids (128) in the vicinity of the Flora family, followed by the X-type (10), C-type (7), and V-type (6) asteroids. Furthermore, building on the knowledge of the family's average surface mineralogical composition, we identified eight potential interlopers: five X-type, two C-type, and one V-type asteroids. Our methodology for performing taxonomic classification is multi-analytical, incorporating the development and implementation of a parametric algorithm (weight function) alongside three k-nearest neighbors methods. This study represents one of the most detailed taxonomic maps of the Flora family neighbourhood to date, significantly enhancing our understanding of its compositional diversity.
