General Assembly

With the increasing complexity of international law and a growing need for legal education, the Programme of Assistance in the Teaching, Study, Dissemination and Wider Appreciation of International Law – funded by the United Nations regular budget - was fulfilling its important mandate by offering high‑quality legal training through its Regional Courses, publications and the Audiovisual Library, the Sixth Committee (Legal) heard today as it began its consideration of the Programme.

With migrant numbers skyrocketing worldwide, speakers emphasized that group’s contribution to development as well as the need to recognize their qualifications, protect their rights and combat illegal trafficking, as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) took up globalization and interdependence today.

Delegates warned today against the politicization of public information and the targeting of journalists, as the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) continued its general debate on questions relating to information.

The world has been fundamentally reordered by widespread neoliberal economics that has privatized basic public goods — social protections, education, pensions and criminal justice among them — with often disastrous impacts on the human rights of the extremely poor, experts told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.

Realizing the shared vision of “leaving no one behind” of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 is contingent on the international community’s ability to mobilize resources, transfer technology, and forgive debt, delegates told the General Assembly today.

Reform efforts currently under way are designed to help the Department of Public Information become more agile in operation and have a greater impact on communications, both within the United Nations and in relation to external stakeholders and the public, the Organization’s head of public information told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) as it began its consideration of questions relating to information today.

Exchanging views on ways to break a languishing disarmament impasse, including by assuring all non‑nuclear‑weapon States against the use or threat of atomic bombs, delegates of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today began a thematic discussion on nuclear weapons.

Millions of people risk being left behind due to the impact of rapid technological change, the General Assembly heard today as speakers called for increased cooperation to harness the positive and transformative power of technology to improve the livelihood of people around the world.

The recent “shocking” case of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is only one of thousands of enforced disappearances and the international community must stand firm in denouncing such crimes, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today as it continued its debate on human rights.

Speakers in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today welcomed a 5.2 per cent reduction in the projected cost of replacing semi‑permanent office blocks at the United Nations Office at Nairobi that date back to the 1970s, but expressed concern that a seismic mitigation retrofit and life‑cycle replacements project at the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) premises in Bangkok is running the risk of going over budget.