The General Assembly this morning adopted, without a vote, a resolution that strongly encouraged Member States and national, regional and local education authorities to integrate education for democracy — along with civic education, human rights instruction and education for sustainable development — into their curricula and to strengthen programmes aimed at the promotion of democratic values.
Delegates at today's Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) meeting discussed a proposed cost-neutral restructuring of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), aimed at shifting more of the Office’s work from its headquarters in Geneva to existing and proposed regional offices.
Humanitarian, socioeconomic and security conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory remained grave amid Israel’s continuing violations of human rights norms and United Nations resolutions, the Deputy Observer for the State of Palestine said today, as the Palestinian Rights Committee approved four draft resolutions for consideration by the General Assembly.
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved five draft resolutions today, four of which pertained to human rights situations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Syria, Iran and Crimea, while one focused on crime prevention.
Holding to its long-standing tradition of approving texts without a vote, the Sixth Committee (Legal) concluded the work of its seventy-first session today by taking action on 10 resolutions, one request for observer status and a draft decision on programme planning.
The General Assembly today filled more than 20 vacancies in subsidiary bodies, acting on the recommendation of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), and also appointed new members to the Committee on Conferences, Joint Inspection Unit and the Economic and Social Council.
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved a resolution today on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as well as heard the introduction of seven texts on issues ranging from combating the glorification of Nazism and neo-Nazism, to realizing the right to food.
While there were still many challenges to be addressed, international tribunals set up in the wake of the wars in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda had left behind a historic legacy of bringing to justice perpetrators of atrocity crimes, the General Assembly heard this morning.
Concluding its work for the main part of the General Assembly’s seventy-first session, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) approved 10 draft resolutions and two draft decisions today, on such issues as Israeli practices, to the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), to the question of Gibraltar.
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) met this afternoon to introduce seven draft resolutions, including on tackling the human rights situations in Syria and Iran, as well as on measures to eliminate female genital mutilation.
