Amid the backdrop of rising unilateralism and large-scale migration, world leaders attending the General Assembly united under the theme of making the United Nations relevant to all people, stressing that only through a multilateral rules-based order can the international community meet emerging challenges.
In progress at UNHQ
General Assembly
Concluding the main part of its seventy-third session, the General Assembly tonight adopted 24 resolutions and 2 decisions recommended by its main Committees, including texts on management and fiscal issues, as well as on nuclear disarmament, human rights and eliminating racism.
As it managed the first year of the 2018-2019 budget cycle and zeroed in on ways to make the Organization run more effectively, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today tended to its fiscal responsibilities by approving the complex methodology used to calculate the annual contributions of Member States.
The Assembly today rejected a resolution which would have called on the Russian Federation and United States to strengthen compliance for the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), and elected members to various bodies, including one judge to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.
The General Assembly today adopted resolutions and decisions of its Second (Economic and Financial) and Sixth (Legal) Committees, also adopting four texts — including one calling for compliance with International Court of Justice judgments — from its plenary session.
The General Assembly endorsed the recently adopted Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration today, the first-ever international cooperation framework for effectively addressing issues that concern the world’s 258 million people on the move and countries of origin, transit and destination.
The General Assembly today commemorated anniversaries of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, with high-level plenary meetings that included a dedicated award ceremony honouring the 2018 recipients of the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights.
The General Assembly endorsed the Global Compact on Refugees today — an historic agreement aiming to forge a stronger and fairer response to refugee movements — as it adopted 53 resolutions and 6 decisions recommended by its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).
The General Assembly today adopted a resolution urging the Russian Federation to withdraw its military forces from Crimea and end its temporary occupation of Ukraine’s territory without delay, but rejected an amendment that would have called on both sides to investigate an incident in November involving the seizure of three Ukrainian vessels and crew.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up a raft of reports from the Secretary-General today on topics as varied as the revised budget for the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) to the ongoing deployment of flexible workspace at Headquarters, in addition to the programme budget implications of several draft resolutions going before the General Assembly.