Warning against unilateral moves, speakers called for reinvigorated multilateral responses to the contemporary challenges facing the international community, including climate change, geopolitical tensions, terrorism, poverty and inequalities, as the General Assembly today held a commemorative meeting observing the United Nations International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace.
The highest-ranking official of the United Nations mechanism that acts as the central repository of information and evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Syria described progress made collecting and documenting evidence, while also stressing the immediate and urgent need to prepare for justice, as the General Assembly took up the latest report on the matter today.
Thanks to their education, millennials are much more attuned to environmental issues and can play a crucial role in creating a sustainable future, India’s representative said today as the 193‑nation General Assembly commemorated International Mother Earth Day.
Endorsing a new international declaration on the critical role South-South cooperation plays in tackling sustainable development challenges, the General Assembly today adopted a related resolution and a package of other texts, including several recommended to it by its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) and a draft on the Organization’s partnership with French-speaking nations.
With millions at risk of losing their job to automation amid increasing global inequality, policies ensuring decent work and protection from exploitation are more critical than ever, the General Assembly heard today, as it commemorated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Concluding the first part of its resumed seventy-third session, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today approved four draft resolutions and one draft decision, including one regarding efforts to foster a strong culture of accountability across the United Nations system, but it withdrew another text on a new model of delivering administrative services to Secretariat staff worldwide after failing to reach consensus on the matter.
Delegates elaborating the terms of a new high seas treaty under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea hailed expanding convergence on many of that instrument’s substantive elements, as the Intergovernmental Conference tasked with drafting a legally-binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity concluded its second session today.
The Intergovernmental Conference tasked with drafting a legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity continued its work on cross-cutting issues today, with delegates outlining whether the new treaty should establish a clearing house mechanism, and if so, for what purpose.
As they adressed the stalled peace process and “creeping annexation” by Israel of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, delegates, activists and policymakers participating in a high-level forum on the question of Palestine considered a variety of solutions ranging from full Palestinian statehood recognition to a bill in Ireland’s parliament to ban imported goods produced in the illegal settlements.
Delegates today grappled with the issue of funding sources for capacity‑building and the transfer of marine technology — as well as the most suitable monitoring and review processes in that arena — along with the matter of establishing subsidiary bodies, as the Intergovernmental Conference, tasked with drafting a legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity, continued its work.
