The question of Western Sahara generated sharp debate today as the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) continued its annual hearing of petitioners, with many speakers decrying conditions in refugee camps and the potentially dire consequences for youth and children in particular.
Speakers in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) called for more robust efforts to revive stalled disarmament processes, with some discussing whether the General Assembly should launch negotiations that would lead to a worldwide nuclear-weapon ban.
A debate over the best interests of Non-Self-Governing Territories stimulated confrontational exchanges and elicited strong opinions from a broad range of representatives and petitioners today, as the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) entered its second day of debate on decolonization issues.
Casting an overview of challenges facing social development - ranging from inequalities in employment through specific issues facing rural populations - the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) began its work today, with delegates calling for closer international cooperation and solidarity with the world’s most vulnerable groups.
Regional cooperation was critical to combating terrorism as that threat expanded and took on new forms, ranging from cyberterrorism to State-sponsored terrorism, speakers stressed, as the Sixth Committee (Legal) continued its deliberations on measures to eliminate international terrorism today.
Preventing climate change, enhancing international cooperation, and acknowledging the needs of specific groups and categories of States were necessary to implement the 2030 Agenda and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, Member States said today as the General Assembly’s Second Committee (Economic and Financial) concluded its general debate.
Among other critical activities during the General Assembly’s seventy-first session, the State of Palestine would pursue efforts to enhance its status at the United Nations and demand that the international community end illegal settlement-building activities, its Permanent Observer told the Palestinian Rights Committee today.
Flexibility and creativity were needed in order to find common ground and move past recent setbacks across the disarmament landscape, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today, opening its general debate.
The General Assembly today decided to allow four nations in arrears — Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia and Sao Tome and Principe — to vote in the 193‑member body until the end of its seventy-first session, recognizing that their failure to pay the minimum amount was caused by conditions beyond their control.
The world was facing an unprecedented array of global risks and negative trends from the refugee crisis and climate change to drug-resistant antibiotics and political upheaval, a renowned economist told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today, as it began its general debate.
