General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

The General Assembly, deeply alarmed by the number of mines laid each year, as well as the presence of a decreasing but still very large number of mines and explosive remnants of war as a result of armed conflicts, would urge all States to assist countries affected by those weapons in the establishment and development of national mine-action capacities, according to a draft text approved today without a vote by the Fourth Committee.

As consideration of the International Law Commission’s report continued in the Sixth Committee today, the Committee also heard an address from the President of the International Court of Justice, which was followed by an interactive dialogue with Committee members.

30 October 2009

General AssemblyGA/EF/3261

Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York

Sixty-fourth General Assembly

Second Committee

26^th Meeting (PM)

In the wake of the economic crisis, a “new regime” of governance was under way in the global financial system, several experts told the Second Committee this afternoon during a panel discussion on “Revitalizing the international financial system”.

The First Committee today recommended that the General Assembly convene a conference on an arms trade treaty in 2012 to elaborate a legally binding instrument on the highest possible international standards for conventional arms transfers, recognizing that the absence of agreed standards for those transfers to address the problems relating to unregulated trade and their diversion to the illicit market contributed to armed conflict, the displacement of people, organized crime and terrorism.

Concluding a discussion of the proposed budget for 2010-2011, several developing countries on the Fifth Committee insisted that zero growth was not the solution for the Organization’s budget, and called for rectifying imbalances in funding budget priorities.

In its third annual debate on the work of the Human Rights Council, the General Assembly today recognized the newly formed body’s use of innovative mechanisms, special sessions and input from civil society to protect more people around the world from human rights violations.

Combined efforts by the United Nations, Governments, civil society and operational implementing partners to efficiently coordinate mine action-related activities gone far to end the suffering caused by landmines and explosive remnants of war, Assistant Secretary-General for the Rule of Law and Security Institutions of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today.

Deeply concerned about the pervasiveness of all forms of violence against women and girls and in recognition of the special vulnerability of young people in the current financial and economic crisis, the Third Committee today approved two draft resolutions on ending violence against women and on youth, before beginning consideration of the report of the Human Rights Council.

Bold, sweeping plans to reduce nuclear weapons arsenals, build confidence and boost transparency features in one of nine draft resolutions overwhelmingly approved this afternoon by the Disarmament Committee, as the present positive momentum in the field found remarkably few voices of dissent.