General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

“We are sorry to report,” the Deputy Secretary-General of the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today, “once again — despite the genuine efforts of the successive Presidents, negotiations on any issue on its agenda have been absent”.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up its agenda item on the pattern of conferences, delegates today prodded the Secretariat to work more quickly to simplify overall efforts to shorten the length of documents and issue them on time, as well as to increase the efficient use of the Organization’s meeting facilities.

Concluding its consideration of decolonization issues, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) would have the General Assembly recommend that all States intensify their efforts to ensure the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, by one of five draft texts approved today.

States needed to promote women’s rights, so they could be “agents of change” for sustained socio-economic development and security around the world, delegates told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, as it continued its three-day discussion on the advancement of women.

Amid the urgent global need for jobs, there was a growing consensus that rebuilding the link between markets and people was necessary for the creation of a new model of political commitment to production and employment growth, a senior official with UN Women told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today.

The nuclear Powers had no moral authority to call for strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime when they themselves were responsible for undermining it, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today upon the conclusion of its general debate.

The United Nations top management official told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today that the Organization’s financial indicators for 2011 had improved in some areas even as a single Member State was responsible for 87.4 per cent of the $867 million outstanding in the regular budget.

As General Assembly delegates today assessed the first implementation decade of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) — the African-owned strategy adopted in 2001 to drive the continent’s political and socio-economic transformation — they lauded achievements in peace, security and good governance, and looked forward to ownership beyond aid and inclusive sustainable growth over the next 10 years.

Forwarding five consensus draft texts to the General Assembly, including on the questions of Western Sahara, Gibraltar, New Caledonia and Tokelau, the Fourth Committee reaffirmed the inalienable right of all people to self-determination and independence, as it concluded today its general debate on decolonization matters.

Following a remarkable year in the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment that was marked by the establishment of UN-Women and the launch of the Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, it was now time to turn the momentum generated in 2010 into clear, tangible gains for women and girls everywhere, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told today.