General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

Delegates offered input on the Transforming Education Summit, the Doha Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2022-2031, follow-up to the Millennium Declaration and the 2005 World Summit Outcome, as well as progress in implementing the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (2016–2025), as the General Assembly met today to review how major United Nations conferences and summits are carried out and ways to help strengthen the United Nations system.

As the Sixth Committee (Legal) commenced its consideration of crimes against humanity, speakers argued over the need to elaborate a convention based on the International Law Commission’s draft articles, with some pointing to three years of stalled progress, calling for an ad hoc committee that could facilitate a constructive exchange on the matter.

The Russian Federation, by launching an “unprovoked and barbaric invasion” of its neighbour, had trampled the fundamental principles of prohibiting the use of force against the territorial integrity and political independence of a State and cast a long shadow over disarmament, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard as it continued its general debate.

The world is facing the worst hunger crisis, with an estimate of 149 million children — nearly one in five — chronically malnourished, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today, as delegates continued their general discussion on the rights of children.

General Assembly delegates today extended the Organization’s support and sympathy to the Government and people of Pakistan with the unanimous adoption of a resolution that emphasizes the need to help the South-East Asian nation rebuild from devastating rains that left a third of the country under water.

It was supremely illogical that any State would court mutually assured destruction unless that “apocalyptic” scenario of annihilating several hundred million people beyond the theatre of war was the goal, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today as it continued its general debate.

Globalization must go hand in hand with increased cooperation in science and technology, United Nations experts and delegates told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today as it took up information and communications technologies (ICT) for sustainable development as well as globalization and interdependence.

Impoverished children and those displaced by conflict or climate change continue to bear the brunt of post-pandemic economic crises and global conflicts, speakers told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, as it took up the rights of children.

Underscoring the need to uphold the rule of law when introducing measures to respond to global emergencies or incorporating new technology into justice systems, speakers warned of the potential to erode human rights and fundamental freedoms, as the Sixth Committee continued its debate on the rule of law at the national and international levels today.

Petitioners on the long-standing question of Western Sahara addressed the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) for a second day today, with their statements reflecting opposing stances on Morocco’s claim of sovereignty over the Non-Self-Governing Territory.