Adopting a draft resolution on global health and foreign policy that focused on the role of health employment in driving economic growth and helping Member States move toward sustainable development, the General Assembly also held a debate on the culture of peace and elected members to the Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission.
The 13-year-old United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) had proven a true “success story” in the history of United Nations peacekeeping operations, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) said today, as they considered a final budget request to withdraw Mission personnel and formally end its presence in the country by June 2017.
Concluding its work for the main part of the General Assembly’s seventy-first session today, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) voted against a proposed amendment to a text by recorded vote, unanimously approving that draft as a whole, for a total of six draft resolutions on topics ranging from debt sustainability and development to food security and beyond.
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today gave mixed reviews of the Secretary-General’s plans to consolidate the United Nations fragmented administrative services, which if properly implemented, would improve its ability to serve global duty stations and field offices through a leaner, more effective and cost-efficient structure.
The role of the Sixth Committee (Legal) was crucial to strengthening international cooperation to confront threats to peace and security, the General Assembly affirmed today, as it adopted 25 resolutions and 4 decisions of that Committee without a vote.
The General Assembly, taking up a range of items this afternoon, considered the latest report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — the main United Nations organ devoted to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy — while also adopting a text related to the work of the Credentials Committee and electing seven members to the Committee for Programme and Coordination.
António Guterres of Portugal was sworn in today as the next Secretary-General of the United Nations, with the General Assembly paying tribute to his predecessor, Ban Ki‑moon.
Exposing deep rifts between its 193 members, the General Assembly voted today to adopt a resolution demanding an immediate end to all hostilities in Syria, as speakers decried the Security Council’s continued impotence on a situation that threatened to become “the shame of our time”.
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today shared their views on the United Nations efforts to combat sexual exploitation and abuse in its ranks, stressing the need for a more cohesive approach to eradicating the problem that included adherence to its zero-tolerance policy and training for peacekeepers, both before deployment and in the field.
The General Assembly would stress the importance of overcoming silos in sustainable development by the terms of a draft resolution approved by recorded vote, one of 15 draft resolutions taken up today by the Second Committee (Economic and Financial).
