While conflict, climate change and chaotic migration had reinforced the world’s need for the United Nations human rights machinery, that system was at risk of abuse due to the many pressures arising from concurrent crises, delegates warned the Third Committee today (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), as they debated the Organization’s special procedures and mandates today.
With crimes against humanity multiplying around the world, States must push forward toward — and not back away from — universal support for the International Criminal Court, the General Assembly heard today, as it considered the latest annual report of the Hague-based judicial body.
The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) turned its attention to conventional weapons today, approving 10 texts, including one that would have the General Assembly reaffirm its determination to ensure the effective operation of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms.
Regional commissions had a long-established role in guiding development policy and analysis in their parts of the world, and each faced its own challenges to implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Member States heard as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) held a dialogue on the topic of “One Year of SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals]: Where the Regions Are”.
While the findings of the 2013 report on Japan’s 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident remained valid, the long-term incidence of cancer among its victims required further consideration, speakers said today, as the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) approved a draft resolution on the effects of atomic radiation.
Experts on the human rights situations in Myanmar and Iran, as well as on thematic topics such as trafficking in persons, were among those presenting reports to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, as delegates began general debate on those reports and introduced five draft resolutions on other aspects of social development.
The protection of the environment was increasingly becoming an important concern, both on the international stage and in the disputes brought before the International Court of Justice, the President of that body told the Sixth Committee today.
Responding to an increasingly complex international security landscape with unprecedented threats emerging from non-State actors, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) approved 7 draft texts, one aimed at preventing an outer space arms race and another on stopping terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
Delegates at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) urged the Secretariat to ensure the United Nations staff reflected the diversity of Member States as it better managed thousands of employees around the world and helped them carry out the Organization’s crucial mandates.
The General Assembly today elected, by secret ballot, 14 States to serve on the Human Rights Council, the United Nations body responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe.
