Delegations voiced support today for the Secretary-General’s efforts to reform peacekeeping, but warned that cost-cutting must not undermine the ability of missions to effectively carry out their mandates, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up the Organization’s proposed 2017/18 peacekeeping budget and budget performance for 2015/16.
Eradicating sexual exploitation and abuse in United Nations peacekeeping missions would require a collective and holistic approach that left no room for impunity, delegates said today as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up the Secretary-General’s blueprint for tackling the issue across the Organization.
Speakers today emphasized the need to give the United Nations Interim Force for Abyei (UNISFA) and the United Nations Support Office in Somalia the resources they needed to fulfil their mandates, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) continued its consideration of the financing of peacekeeping missions.
Acting without a vote today, the Committee on Information closed its thirty-ninth session by approving a two-part draft resolution, the second of which emphasized the need to promote multilingualism, bridge the digital divide between developed and developing countries, and maintain the use of traditional media, among other topics.
Acting by consensus, the General Assembly adopted a resolution today laying out organizational arrangements for a high-level meeting to review progress made on implementation of the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons.
The financial situation of the United Nations was “generally sound and positive”, the Organization’s senior management official told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today, stressing the importance of Member States making timely payments in order to meet their obligations.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today opened the second part of its resumed seventy-first session, when it was expected to focus on $7.97 billion in budget requirements requested for United Nations peacekeeping operations for the 2017/18 fiscal period.
The General Assembly today adopted the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030, a wide-reaching six-point framework aimed at halting deforestation and forest degradation, while also designating 21 April “World Creativity and Innovation Day”.
Against a backdrop of spiking extremism, proliferating “fake news” and an increasingly fragmented global media space, the Department of Public Information must continue to disseminate factual, impartial information, in accordance with the United Nations Charter principles of sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of States, speakers stressed today, as the Committee on Public Information continued its annual session.
Senior United Nations officials joined representatives of the world’s indigenous communities and Member States today as the General Assembly marked the tenth anniversary of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and explored ways to further its implementation.
