General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

Arbitrary, unilateral sanctions infringed on development, violated human rights, defied the rule of law and harmed innocent people and States, delegates told the Sixth Committee (Legal), today, as it concluded its debate on the Special Committee on the Charter and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization and began consideration of criminal accountability of United Nations officials and experts on mission.

Efforts to bridge the security gap between those who had nuclear weapons and those who did not drew the attention of the Disarmament Committee today, as the non-nuclear-armed States reiterated their longstanding demand for legally binding assurances that those weapons would not be used against them, as a surer path to protection pending fulfilment of the goal of complete nuclear disarmament.

While giving clear auditing opinions for the 2010-2011 biennium to nearly all entities in the United Nations Systems, the Organization’s top auditing watchdog warned the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today of the weaknesses in governance found throughout the Organization.

With the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) wrestling today with ways to conclude the unfinished journey for 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories, it was told that the body tasked with completing the decolonization process — long championed as a United Nations success story — no longer had a relevant role with respect to the Overseas Territories of the United Kingdom.

Trafficking in persons and illicit drugs were two of the most heinous forms of transnational organized crime and they would continue to ravage the world’s economies without holistic and coordinated action by source, transit and destination countries alike, delegates in the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) said today, as they wrapped up their two-day discussion on crime prevention and international drug control.

The rule of law could never be realized if States continued to threaten and disrupt the internal affairs of others, support extremists abroad, and apply unilateral sanctions, Syria’s delegate told the Sixth Committee (Legal) as it concluded its debate on the rule of law and began consideration of the Special Committee on the Charter and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization.

While aspiring to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world, the prospects of new agreements were becoming more and more illusive as the “tectonic shifts” from hasty implementation of unilateral measures were affecting strategic stability, the Russian Federation’s delegate today told the Disarmament Committee.

The United Nations top management official today told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) that the Organization’s financial indicators for 2012 were generally “positive and sound” though the regular budget’s cash level was under pressure with $855 million of the $2.4 billion budget still outstanding.

“I’m afraid that we are confronted with the choice of either adapting to the new times, or simply being left behind,” General Assembly President Vuk Jeremić said today as delegates discussed ways to reinvigorate the 193-member body, which faced an ever-widening gap between its duties and its capabilities.

The political ambiguity surrounding the decades-old conflict in Western Sahara, despite the string over the years of settlement proposals and initiatives to resolve it, again underpinned debate today in the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) as petitioners laid bare both the plight of the Saharans and their potential to secure a positive future.