General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

Efforts to stem the spread of violence and armed conflict had found intergovernmental allies from areas as diverse as agricultural development to global financing, greatly boosting the chances of eventually achieving disarmament goals, the United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Sergio Duarte, told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today.

Member States praised the work of the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) this morning, as they took up issues related to programme planning in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary).

While the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) had broken new ground in many areas ‑‑ including clarifying the concept of sexual and reproductive health and setting a quantitative goal for universal delivery of such services ‑‑ substantial progress must be made to stop women from dying of preventable pregnancy-related causes, delegates in the General Assembly stressed today, as they concluded their two-day commemoration of the Conference.

The Fourth Committee would have the General Assembly reaffirm the right of peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories to self-determination, while also calling once again on all Governments that had not yet done so to take legislative, administrative or other measures to put an end to enterprises in the Territories that were detrimental to the interests of the inhabitants, by one of 10 draft resolutions approved today.

Embarking on a two-day discussion on the advancement of women, members of the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today encouraged speedy completion of proposals for a new United Nations body to oversee gender equality and women’s empowerment, in a process overseen by the Secretary-General with involvement from the Deputy Secretary-General, which was expected to conclude at year’s end.

As the report of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) was taken up by the Sixth Committee (Legal) today, the Chairperson of the Commission, Soo Geun Oh (Republic of Korea) said that adoption of the Practice Guide on Cross-Border Insolvency Cooperation was a key and very timely achievement of UNCITRAL’s forty-second session (held in Vienna, 29 June-17 July) during the time of the global economic crisis.

A debt moratorium for developing countries, policies to prevent excessive volatility in commodity markets, and a regulatory overhaul and stronger surveillance of international financial institutions, were urgently needed to restore global economic health and help developing nations overcome obstacles to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, several representatives told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today as it began its consideration of macroeconomic policy questions.

The international community must act now to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or risk having the world becomes a more dangerous place, Jeffrey Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute and Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University, told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) during a panel discussion on “Achieving the MDGs by 2015: Preparing for the 2010 MDG Summit.”

The national defence budgets of the major Powers had ballooned, regional disputes had festered, particularly in South Asia and the Middle East, new conflicts had emerged and a new kind of arms race threatened the progressive disarmament and non-proliferation landscape, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today as it concluded its general debate.

At a General Assembly session commemorating today the fifteenth anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development, United Nations Secretary‑General Ban Ki-Moon lauded that landmark meeting for sparking a shift in the international mindset on population issues and prodding Governments everywhere to recognize each individual’s right to reproductive health.