General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

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.

Emphasizing the vital importance of international trade to the growth and development of least developed countries, delegates in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) underlined today the urgent need to successfully conclude a development-oriented outcome to the Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations.

Revitalizing the work of the Conference on Disarmament, accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitments, and granting negative security assurances to non-nuclear-weapon States were among the aims of the 10 draft texts approved today as the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) continued its action on the 53 draft texts before it.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today wrapped up its debate on the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2012-2013, several delegates criticized the budget for short-changing the Organization’s development agenda, at the expense of developing countries.