General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) was presented today with the revised 2016-2017 budgetary estimates for the United Nations Monitoring Mechanism for Syria, whose mandate was recently extended for one year.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) discussed the use of more flexible and open workplace at the United Nations, delegates raised concerns about upwardly revised cost estimates for the now $65.7 million project, and that an assessment of its impact on productivity and staff well-being had not been finalized.

Concluding its 2016 session, the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations adopted without a vote today the draft report of the session, laying out the proposals, recommendations and conclusions submitted by its Working Group of the Whole on a wide range of peacekeeping issues.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today approved a draft resolution supporting the Board of Auditors’ recommendations concerning the renovation of the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva and the Organization’s handling of information and communications technology affairs.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) considered the topic of accountability today in its review of the Organization’s efficiency in administrative and financial functioning, speakers welcomed achievements and acknowledged areas where further progress was needed.

The United Nations must uphold the very international labour practices it supported by ensuring that those working within the system were fairly treated and compensated during and after their service, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) heard today during its consideration of a range of human resources issues.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened the first part of its resumed seventieth session today with a review of its 2016 provisional work programme, the 2016-2017 programme budget for the United Nations resilience management system and the role of the Joint Inspection Unit, among other matters.

A decade after world leaders agreed on the responsibility to protect at a Headquarters world summit, the principle remained a worthy yet elusive concept, with success seen in some places, but with Syria standing out as a glaring example of the international community’s failure to put it into practice, delegates said during a General Assembly thematic panel discussion today.

The Special Committee on Decolonization should intensify action-oriented dialogue with the aim of generating further momentum to fulfil the United Nations decolonization mandate, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement read out on his behalf at the opening of that body’s 2016 session today.

Concluding its annual session today, the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on Strengthening the Role of the Organization adopted its 2015 draft report and forwarded its recommendations to the General Assembly.