A team handling the liquidation of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in the Sudan (UNITAMS) could be smaller, the Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today, as he recommended that the Mission’s proposed budget for 2024 be reduced accordingly.
In progress at UNHQ
Fifth Committee
Managers who don’t implement the recommendations of oversight bodies — including on staff recruitment from unrepresented and underrepresented countries — should be held accountable, speakers told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today during a discussion on strengthening the United Nations culture of accountability.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today examined the resources required to operationalize a new institution tasked with finding the fate and whereabouts of all missing persons in Syria, as several delegates raised objections to establishing and funding the mechanism approved by the General Assembly in 2023.
As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) resumed its seventy-eighth session amid the cash crunch confronting the Organization, delegates pressed all States to pay their assessed contributions and ensure that the Organization’s staff represents the world it serves, in terms of geographical representation and gender parity.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today wrapped up the main part of its seventy-eighth session by sending the General Assembly a 2024 budget of $3.59 billion, about $3 million more than the $3.3 billion budget laid out by the Secretary-General in October.
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) supported proposed amendments to the United Nations Staff Regulations and Rules, also lending support for human resource management reforms aimed at creating a more equitable and geographically balanced staff representation at the Organization, particularly considering the plight of developing countries.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today approved its annual programme planning resolution, after rejecting an eponymous text by the Russian Federation that would have removed any references to a mechanism set up by the United Nations a dozen years ago to investigate international crimes committed in Syria since that country’s war began in March 2011.
Adequate and predictable financing for mandates arising from resolutions and decisions adopted by the Council — the main UN intergovernmental body dealing with human rights — is vital to strengthen this pillar and promote and protect fundamental freedoms, said Costa Rica’s representative, also speaking for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the 2024 budget implications of seven resolutions approved by three General Assembly Committees that — if adopted by all Member States — would deliver nearly $6 million to help the Organization foster greater cooperation on international tax treaties, curb racism and direct more international financing to developing countries.
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the 2024 budget implications of six outputs of the First Committee’s (Disarmament and International Security) 2023 session that — if adopted by the General Assembly — would deliver just over $1 million to help verify nuclear disarmament, curb an arms race in outer space and meet the challenges created by lethal autonomous weapons systems. These five resolutions and one decision would also address the legacy of nuclear weapons and support the Open-ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies 2021–2025, which was set up through an Assembly resolution.