General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

Just one nuclear weapon exploded in one major city could kill hundreds of thousands and destabilize society, economies and ways of life, and halting their spread and preventing nuclear terrorism should be a shared responsibility because no single nation, no matter how powerful, could do that alone, the United States representative told the Disarmament Committee today.

Following the conclusion of its discussion on the scale of assessments for the regular budget, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took up the scale of assessments for determining Member States’ contributions in 2010-2012 for the peacekeeping operations budget, the first such review in nine years. Delegates expressed concern at an anomaly in the determination process that caused a number of developing countries to be assessed at the same level as developed economies.

In the General Assembly today, Member States threw their support behind the Secretary-General’s push to inject multilateralism with the renewed vigour it needs to combat today’s global crises.

A retooling of work methods, a revival of spirit, and a honed capacity to engage with all concerned parties were necessary to put an end to the unfinished business of decolonization, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) was told, as it began its general debate on the subject today.

Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, this morning warned of “unparalleled negative consequences” to human development, with up to 100 million more people expected to fall below the poverty line, due to the poor health of the world economy.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, today, adopted its annual draft report, urging Israel and the Palestinians to resume the permanent status talks.

As the Sixth Committee (Legal) today addressed the organization of its work for 2009, and reviewed the new system of administering justice at the United Nations, which had been introduced earlier this year and was generally welcomed, concerns were expressed about certain structural details of the new system, which is now subject to formalization by the General Assembly.

As the international community struggled to recover from the global financial and economic recession, mitigate climate change, end poverty and stem the spread of the H1N1 virus, the United Nations was carrying out nine joint initiatives to respond to those and other crises, Deputy Secretary-General Asha‑Rose Migiro said today.

With some 23,000 nuclear weapons reportedly still in existence, thousands of missiles and bombers to deliver them, weapons of mass destruction treaties short of universal membership and a large and growing agenda for conventional arms control, it was very difficult to dispute that achievement of the disarmament goals remained “the burning problem of our time”, Sergio Duarte, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, told the Disarmament Committee.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up the scale for determining Member States’ dues to the Organization’s budget in 2010-2012, the delegates emphasized the importance of following the principle of capacity to pay as the fundamental criterion in the apportionment of the expenses of the United Nations and considered the main elements of the methodology used to calculate the assessments.