General Assembly

The General Assembly today adopted two resolutions submitted by its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) and appointed members to three of its subsidiary bodies.

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved three resolutions today, one of them reaffirming the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and the population of occupied Syrian Golan over their land, water and energy resources.

A draft resolution that would see the General Assembly address the global refugee crisis and the role of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was among four texts approved today without a vote by the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).

Sounding a united call for future reports of the Security Council to the General Assembly to be more analytical and less descriptive, a score of non-Council Member States today addressed specific conflict situations, as well as cross-cutting issues affecting cooperation between the Council and other organs of the United Nations.

Unanimously approving a draft resolution on special political missions today, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) also concluded its general debate on Israel’s practices in occupied Arab territories, with delegations condemning its blockade of the Gaza Strip, violence by settlers and other human rights violations.

Disturbing evidence of continued human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories further underscored the need for Israel to end its long-standing occupation, speakers in the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) stressed today, as that body opened its annual debate on that country’s illegal practices in occupied lands.

After concluding deliberations on the third and final cluster of topics in the report of the International Law Commission, the Sixth Committee (Legal) today approved without a vote two draft resolutions, the first on the report of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and the second on the United Nations Programme of Assistance in the Teaching, Study, Dissemination and Wider Appreciation of International Law.

Domestic resource mobilization and taxation were crucial to achieving sustainable development, several panellists stressed today at a joint meeting of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) and the Economic and Social Council.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today began examining the proposed compensation package for the United Nations system, including a more performance-linked pay system, a single pay scale for staff with or without dependents, as well as implementation of the new retirement age of 65 for existing staff by 1 January 2017.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) met this afternoon to hear the introduction of four draft resolutions relating to a centre in Central Africa, Nazism, the right of the Palestinian People to self-determination and the situation in Syria, with the latter triggering comments from some speakers opposed to country-specific texts.