General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

Resuming its consideration of peacekeeping finance and field support against the backdrop of an unprecedented $8 billion-plus peacekeeping budget, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today heard calls for a “clear message” to be sent to the Secretary-General on cross-cutting issues relating to peacekeeping administration and budgeting, on which agreement had eluded the Committee in the past two years.

The Committee on Information this afternoon called on the United Nations Department of Public Information to continue to advance, through new technology, multilingualism, partnership, efficiency and local outreach, to better raise awareness of critical international issues.

In the midst of a broad agenda — covering the financial situation of the United Nations, cross-cutting issues in peacekeeping finance and the new global field support strategy — the Fifth Committee approved a draft resolution that would authorize the Secretary-General to enter into commitments of $120.64 million for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, to support a rise in troop and police levels, as endorsed by the Security Council following the disastrous January earthquake.

The General Assembly today marked the sixty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon describing the conflict as “one of the most epic struggles for freedom and liberation in history”, and adding that the devastating seven-year war had also led to the creation of the United Nations to foster peace, international cooperation and prevent future conflicts.

Meeting for the second day of its resumed session, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today heard the proposed budgets of nine United Nations peacekeeping and integrated missions for the 2010/11 financial year, which ranged from $1.44 billion for the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) to $47.9 million for the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), tasked with maintaining the 1974 Israel-Syria ceasefire.

The General Assembly’s Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened today the second part of its resumed substantive session, what its Chairperson called the “final lap” in its annual marathon to take action on vital issues, such as funding United Nations peacekeeping operations and improving the Organization’s financial situation.

The Department of Public Information would continue to work with the Government of Angola to soon make the planned United Nations Information Centre in Luanda for Portuguese-speaking African countries a reality, Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, said this afternoon as the Committee on Information concluded the general debate of its thirty-second session.

Equality of languages on the United Nations website and the implications of freedom of information were dominant themes in the Committee on Information this afternoon, as it continued the general debate of its thirty-second session.

It was crucial for the United Nations to get its message out through both the latest technologies, such as Twitter, and more traditional ones, such as radio, the head of the Department of Public Information told the Committee on Information as it opened its annual session this morning.

Concluding its special meeting on International Mother Earth Day this morning, the General Assembly heard appeals from developing States for concerted action to tackle environmental problems “consistent with moral and ethical values” at a time of great strain to the Earth. Recalling the events at Copenhagen, the representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines said that last-ditch efforts, though well intentioned, had produced a document that was “procedurally and substantively flawed”.