General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

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.

Now facing its third year with a “down to the wire at the last minute” funding gap for essential services, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was still $46 million short for its 2011 budget, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today as it began its annual consideration of that Agency’s work.

The Sixth Committee (Legal) today turned its focus from the second group of topics within the International Law Commission report to the third group, and heard from Special Rapporteurs on the “expulsion of aliens” and the “protection of persons in the event of disasters” that the development of international legal instruments on these matters was both timely and relevant.

The planet would suffer irreversible damage if “business as usual” continued, Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs warned today as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) began its consideration of sustainable development.

In a late diplomatic development today in the Disarmament Committee, a key sponsor of a draft resolution that would have had the General Assembly call upon the Conference on Disarmament to set a programme of work during its 2012 session to enable the immediate start of negotiations, did not press that text to a vote, in order, he said, to “preserve the integrity and strength” of the proposal.

Cooperatives — member-driven business enterprises that put people front and centre — offered a viable and vibrant alternative economic model, General Assembly delegates said this afternoon, as the United Nations launched the 2012 International Year of Cooperatives.

Anti-personnel mines were “perverse”, as they were triggered by victims with the aim of killing or severing the victims for life, and did not distinguish between combatants and civilians, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today during its consideration of mine action assistance.

Ten years after the world collectively agreed on a comprehensive framework to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, resolute and renewed political will and adequate funding were still needed to implement the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told today.

As the Sixth Committee continued its debate on the second part of the annual consideration of the International Law Commission report, delegates, in the service of strengthening international law, sought to clarify and improve the several sets of draft articles being discussed.