Unanimous in their support for the United Nations in attracting and retaining highly skilled and qualified personnel around the world, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today reviewed new and proposed changes to the compensation packages and policies aimed at boosting staff productivity, ensuring equitable geographical representation of the employee structure and justifying the confidence reposed in it.
Updating Member States on the status of adherence to the safeguards governing the management of nuclear weapons, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today briefed the General Assembly on IAEA’s work, including in Ukraine, Iran, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and elsewhere.
Approving one request for observer status and deferring nine others today, the Sixth Committee (Legal) also heard the oral reports of two Working Groups and took up its agenda item on revitalizing the General Assembly’s work, as several delegates suggested alternative working methods to rejuvenate stagnated discussions.
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved 12 draft resolutions today, covering issues that included the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights, imposition of unilateral coercive measures, rights of Indigenous Peoples, right to self-determination and right to food.
At a time of worsening conflict and alleged human rights and international law violations, the work of the International Court of Justice and the Human Rights Council has never been more important, Member States said today in the General Assembly as debates concluded for the session on the reports of the two bodies, with several speakers expressing distress over the situation in Gaza.
Speakers today urged respect for international humanitarian law — and upheld the two-State solution as the only sure path to peace in the Middle East — as the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) concluded its general debate on Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories.
The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today began its general debate on Israeli practices which impact the human rights of Palestinians and other Arabs in occupied territories and concluded its consideration of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), with speakers expressing alarm at the fast-rising death toll in Gaza and an upsurge in violence between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank.
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the financial status of the $77.9 billion United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund and the $2.16 billion capital master plan, with the latter drawing concerns over rising closeout costs due to an arbitration case with the plan’s construction manager.
As the Sixth Committee (Legal) took up the report of the Committee on Relations with the Host Country today, many speakers welcomed progress of the host country on issuing and renewing entry visas to representatives of certain States, while others pointed to unresolved issues that hinder the exercise of functions of representatives in connection with the United Nations.
In a half day of intense action, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today approved 10 draft resolutions on a range of topics, including homelessness, equal access to justice and combating glorification of Nazism and other practices contributing to contemporary forms of racism and xenophobia, which sparked debate about politicization of human rights issues and effective multilateralism.
