The Committee on Information closed its annual session during a videoconference meeting today, approving two hallmark draft resolutions, one focused on core questions of press freedom and the second laying out its requests and expectations for the newly reformed Department of Global Communications.
In progress at UNHQ
General Assembly: Meetings Coverage
The General Assembly adopted three resolutions today, as the world body held its first plenary meeting since the start of coronavirus-related restrictions at Headquarters, taking note of more than 70 texts it had adopted under its silence procedure since 27 March.
Concluding its work today, the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations approved, as orally revised, the draft report of its 2020 substantive session (document A/AC.121/2020/L.3).
Speakers praised and called for more details about the roll-out of a new framework for assigning senior managers greater authority to make decisions and hold their staff accountable for results, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) met to review the efficiency of that system in the United Nations Secretariat.
The General Assembly today decided to postpone the fourth session of the intergovernmental conference to draft a new global instrument on biodiversity in ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction, citing concerns over the coronavirus disease, COVID-19.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today examined how audit and oversight bodies are functioning across the United Nations organizations, while also weighing the benefits and risks of using cloud computing across these entities.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), continuing its first resumed session, put a spotlight on human resources management today, with delegates hailing progress towards gender parity among the Secretariat’s more than 37,000 staff members worldwide while also pressing for greater efforts to recruit personnel on as wide a geographical basis as possible.
The General Assembly today encouraged further strengthening the global diamond certification scheme known as the Kimberley Process to make it more effective and to ensure that it remains relevant in the future while also contributing to international peace and security and the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened the first part of its resumed seventy‑fourth session today, approving its provisional work programme amid an outcry from some delegates over the General Assembly’s 14 January decision to expand membership of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) without consulting them.
KUALA LUMPUR, 29 February — Activism and regional support are vital to achieving the aspirations of the Palestinian people, speakers said today, at the conclusion of the International Conference on the Question of Palestine.