General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

A senior Secretariat official asked the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today to meet the start-up requirements of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) by approving $454.43 million in financing for the 25 April to 31 December 2013 period.

Pointing to the further deterioration of Syria’s security situation, a senior Secretariat official asked the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today for an extra $8 million to maintain the United Nations peacekeeping operation stationed in the Golan Heights.

Acting on the recommendation of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), the General Assembly today appointed Thomas David Smith (United Kingdom) as a member of the Committee on Contributions for a term of office beginning on 21 May 2013 and ending on 31 December 2014.

Palestinians were “exerting every possible effort” to ensure the success of current efforts to re-start peace negotiations with Israel, their lead negotiator told the Palestinian Rights Committee today.

The General Assembly, working through its busy agenda, today adopted five resolutions and one decision on a wide range of items, including on the self-determination of French Polynesia and on peace and cooperation in the South Atlantic.

Member States’ timely payment of assessed contributions and full reimbursement to troop-contributing countries was critical in maintaining the Organization’s financial health, delegations told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today as they reviewed a briefing on the Organization’s budgetary affairs.

After placing great demands on the environment for decades, “we stand on the mountain of development and, for the first time, Mother Earth is sending invoices back”, the General Assembly heard today during a high-level thematic debate aimed at balancing environment and development by mapping out a practical and policy pathway that had at its core the interdependency between water and energy.

As the General Assembly took action on a resolution addressing the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic, delegations strongly condemned the ongoing violence and called for involved parties to immediately end the hostilities on all sides, and work together for an inclusive Syrian-led political transition to a democratic, pluralistic political system.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today scrutinized the Secretariat’s various reports on cross-cutting aspects of United Nations peacekeeping operations and their support account, most delegates hailed progress made towards stamping out sexual abuse by peacekeepers and implementing the Global Field Support Strategy, but offered divergent views on the peacekeeping budget proposed for the July 2013 to June 2014 period.

Given its transnational nature, combating the scourge of human trafficking required utmost international cooperation and coordination, several speakers said in the General Assembly today as it continued its high-level meeting on the appraisal of the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons.