In progress at UNHQ

Security Council Briefing on Iran and Israel

General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

19 November 2009

GA/10889

Member States Consider Ways to Energize, Fully Engage Powers of General Assembly, Pledge to Restore Institutional Balance with Other United Nations Bodies

The General Assembly’s powers to discuss issues of the greatest concern to its Member States -- from international peace and security, to development, human rights and international law -- should be completely engaged to take advantage of the 192-member body’s full potential, delegations said today as they began their annual consideration of how to revitalize the United Nations’ chief policy-making organ.

17 November 2009

GA/EF/3269

Second Committee Approves Text Reiterating General Assembly’s Deep Concern at Oil Slick Arising from Israel’s Destruction of Lebanese Storage Tanks

The Second Committee approved three draft resolutions today, including a text by which the General Assembly would reiterate its deep concern over the destruction by the Israeli Air Force of oil storage tanks near Lebanon’s El-Jiyeh electric power plant due to the adverse implications for sustainable development in that country.

17 November 2009

GA/AB/3931

Budget Committee Takes Up Reports on Staff Rules for New Contractual Arrangements, Secretariat Make-up, Ethics Office, Disciplinary Matters, Continuing Contracts

Addressing several issues today, among them a number of reports under its human resources management agenda item, members of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) heard from staff representatives on the new staff regulations and rules proposed for implementing the new contractual arrangements, and in their debate stressed the importance of going forward with the implementation of continuing contracts.

16 November 2009

GA/10888

General Assembly Considers Draft Text on Return, Restitution of Cultural Property

Mirroring the international community’s growing awareness of the trauma that people and their Governments suffered when their cultural properties were stolen or trafficked, the General Assembly today considered a draft resolution that asked Member States to actively cooperate in returning displaced cultural artefacts to their rightful home countries.

13 November 2009

GA/10887

Convinced That Expanding Size of Security Council is an Absolute Necessity Member States Discuss Ways to Carry Out ‘Delicate Engineering Project’

While near-consensus had been reached on many issues that had stymied reform of the Security Council for years, questions about exactly how to expand the 15‑member body in a way that guaranteed its effectiveness remained a stubborn snag in building on progress, General Assembly delegates said today as they wrapped up their two-day joint debate on those and other security matters.

12 November 2009

GA/SHC/3966

Third Committee Approves Resolution Aimed at ‘Combating Defamation of Religions’, One of 16 Draft Texts Recommended to General Assembly

The General Assembly would express deep concern at the negative stereotyping of religions and manifestations of intolerance and discrimination in matters of religion or belief by one of 16 texts the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved today -- six of them by recorded vote.

12 November 2009

GA/L/3381

Legal Committee, Ending Work for Session, Seeks Continued Efforts by United States to Safeguard Interests of Diplomatic Personnel

Acting without a vote, the Sixth Committee (Legal) today approved 10 draft resolutions and three decisions, as it wound up its main body of work for the current Assembly session by giving consideration to the report of the Committee on Relations with the Host Country.

12 November 2009

GA/EF/3268

Second Committee Approves Text Demanding That Israel Stop Exploiting, Depleting, Endangering Natural Resources in Occupied Arab Lands

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved two draft resolutions today, including a text that would have the General Assembly demand that Israel stop exploiting, damaging, depleting or endangering the natural resources of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the occupied Syrian Golan.

12 November 2009

GA/10886

As General Assembly Opens Annual Debate on Security Council Reform, Delegations Pledge to Keep Pushing for Equitable Solution to End Years-Long Deadlock

A new tone of flexibility and compromise emerged during the General Assembly’s annual debate on Security Council reform, as delegates vowed to push towards achieving a model that would produce the elusive consensus needed to revamp the United Nations’ most recognizable body.

10 November 2009

GA/SPD/444

International Community Not Lacking Standards in Middle East, but Effort to Implement Them, Fourth Committee Told in Debate on Israeli Practices

What the international community faced today concerning the “crimes committed in Gaza by the Israeli regime was not a lack of standards and norms, but a need for greater effort to implement them”, Iran’s representative told the Fourth Committee as it concluded its general debate on Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.