General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

The prolonged Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories had placed a tremendous burden on civilians, and had an even heavier impact on children, “whose development is deformed by pervasive deprivations affecting health, education and overall security,” a top UN Official told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, Cultural) today.

Looking to move forward on agreements made at the Fourth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries in Istanbul, delegates in the General Assembly’s Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today stressed the need for full implementation of the Programme of Action to address the many challenges and vulnerabilities still facing least developed countries, small island developing States, and landlocked developing countries.

The unregulated traffic-laden information highway posed a major non-traditional security threat, forcing cyberspace onto the international community’s arms control agenda, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard as its thematic debate continued with the introduction of six draft texts on the agenda, under “other disarmament measures and international security”.

Member States gathered at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) meeting today prodded each other once again to pay their financial obligations in full and on time as they discussed improving the Organization’s financial situation and prepared to kick off talks on the 2012-2013 budget cycle.

Information – from both new and traditional sources - was integral to an interdependent and interconnected world, especially in times of rapid political changes, calamities, and natural disasters, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today, as it continued to examine efficacy with which the Organization disseminated its message.

Recent events unfolding across the Middle East and North Africa underscored the pressing need to bolster human rights as the third pillar — alongside security and development — of the United Nations, the High Commissioner for Human Rights told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.

While there was no longer any doubt that globalization was impacting every country on the planet, the costs and benefits of this new era of interconnectedness should be more equally shared, delegates in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) said today as they took up their agenda item on globalization and interdependence.

Draft resolutions on conventional weapons tabled at the United Nations Committee rang a “clarion call” for Member States to urgently redouble efforts to stem the flow of those arms into vulnerable communities around the world, where they shattered the peace and wreaked havoc, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today, with the introduction of three such texts.

Gathering this morning to evaluate the work of the Economic and Social Council in 2011, General Assembly delegates upheld the 54-member body’s importance while urging that its coordination functions be strengthened, that it more fully address “hard core economic issues”, and press for reform of the global financial and economic system.

By broadening the use of different media platforms including traditional means of communication, as well as new media, and partners in outreach, the United Nations Under‑Secretary‑General for Communications and Public Information, Kiyo Akasaka, today told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), his Department was fulfilling its mission to “inform, engage [and] act.”