General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

Five years after its creation, the Human Rights Council had successfully completed a review of its working methods and, through its Universal Periodic Review mechanism, assessed the human rights situation of the entire United Nations membership, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told today.

Proceeding with its debate on the International Law Commission report, the Sixth Committee today discussed the role of the “most-favoured-nation” clause in international trade law and investment treaties and called for the creation of relevant guidelines, which would be of practical utility to States.

The links between energy and food would continue to grow, with the high cost of oil contributing to soaring food prices, because demand for commodities was increasingly interconnected, a top Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official said today during a Second Committee (Economic and Financial) panel discussion.

Evaluating the work of the Human Rights Council, General Assembly delegates today said that during its five-year existence, the Geneva-based Council had developed considerably, but that it should avoid politicization and continue to take the lead in addressing urgent human rights situations around the world.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) supported some of the most marginalized refugee communities in the world, the Fourth Committee (Special Committee and Decolonization) heard today during the conclusion of its debate on UNRWA, as attention remained focused on the Agency’s habitual, but no less troubling, budgetary constraints and the complex political and security setting in which it worked.

The twenty-first century was “proving to be a century of people on the move”, and innovative approaches were needed to address new patterns of forced displacement, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, Cultural) was told today by the head of the United Nations refugee agency.

As the Sixth Committee today continued its annual consideration of the International Law Commission report, delegates tackled, among others, the complex topic of “immunity of State officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction”, seeking to clarify the balance between the need to ensure stability in international relations and to avoid impunity from grave crimes.

Major developments in urbanization since the Second United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat II) made a strong case for holding a third meeting, Joan Clos, Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) as it began considering that agency’s work today.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the Secretariat’s request for more than 26 new posts and $8 million in new resources to maintain the overhaul of the Organization’s system of administering justice begun more than two years ago. If approved by the General Assembly, the additional resources would kick in on the first of January along with the upcoming 2012-2013 budget cycle.

In the wake of the near-meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant that had “changed the landscape” of nuclear safety, General Assembly delegates today said the incident was a grave reminder of the need to close existing safety gaps in the world’s nuclear programmes.