General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

Low productivity, reduced investment, land degradation, water scarcity and climate change had combined to form a “perfect storm” of challenges to the agricultural output of several Member States, General Assembly President Vuk Jeremić (Serbia) told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today.

Voting nearly-unanimously to adopt the General Assembly’s twenty-first consecutive resolution calling for an end to the United States’ blockade against Cuba, United Nations delegates urged President Barack Obama, fresh-off a re-election victory, to “act on the right side of history” and lift Washington’s crushing economic, commercial and financial embargo on the island nation.

On a day in which the Fourth Committee heard many speakers denounce Israel’s policies and activities as “shrinking the window” of opportunity for a two-State solution and describe the Occupied Palestinian Territory as the “largest prison in the world”, that delegation discredited the discussion, calling it one-sided, inflammatory rhetoric constantly disrupting the Committee’s work.

While the revolution in mobile telephony had helped bridge the digital divide, it could not address all the challenges relating to information and communications technology and development, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) heard today.

The General Assembly today elected 18 States to serve on the Human Rights Council, the United Nations key forum for tackling entrenched human rights concerns around the world.

Highlighting “one deeply troubling conclusion” from the advance report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices, its Chairman told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today that its several egregious findings this year might amount to a strategy to either force the Palestinian people off their land or so severely marginalize them as to establish and maintain a system of permanent suppression.

Despite the recent hurricane that had shut down the United Nations’ Headquarters for three consecutive days, Sixth Committee (Legal) delegates noted the successful finalization of work on almost a dozen draft resolutions, as well as the thorough consideration of two topics within their working groups.

Full access to information and communications technology would allow developing countries to participate actively in the global economy and harness the benefits of globalization, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) heard today.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today moved to fill upcoming vacancies in the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, and four other bodies that help it manage the United Nations vast human resources and keep its finances on track. The dozens of recommendations will be sent on to the General Assembly for its stamp of approval later during the sixty-seventh session.

Debate today in the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) amplified a wide range of issues underpinning improvement in both the operational and doctrinal aspects of peacekeeping, including the need to address deficiencies in staff, funding and equipment, the value of further engaging regional and subregional organizations, and the multidimensional aspect of peacekeeping mandates that might now encompass human rights, civilian protection and peacebuilding components.