MANAGUA, 19 May — Opening the Caribbean Regional Seminar on Decolonization today, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recalled that, since the birth of the United Nations 70 years ago, more than 80 nations once under colonial rule, with some 750 million inhabitants, were now sovereign Member States.
The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations Round Table on Legal Aspects of the Question of Palestine, in The Hague from 20 to 22 May. The theme of the Round Table is “Available mechanisms to ensure accountability for violations of international law”.
The Special Committee on decolonization will hold the 2015 Pacific Regional Seminar in Managua, Nicaragua, from 19 to 21 May, with a view to accelerate action in implementation of the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2011-2020).
Expressing condolences to the Nepalese people and Government in the aftermath of recent earthquakes and calling for action to speed recovery and reconstruction efforts, the General Assembly today adopted by consensus a resolution on strengthening the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance.
Concerned over outstanding balances owed to the United Nations and overdue payments to Member States for peacekeeping operations, delegates said the Organization had a “long way to go” before receiving a “clean bill of financial health”, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) heard today.
As Haiti approached presidential and municipal elections, adequate international support was needed to avoid a security vacuum and a loss of gains made towards democracy and development, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) heard today as it weighed a substantial cut to the 2015/16 budget of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in that country.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today began its consideration of the additional $80 million required for the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) for the year ending 30 June 2015.
Closing its thirty-seventh session this afternoon, the Committee on Information unanimously approved a report relaying two draft resolutions to the General Assembly, with a focus on increased multilingualism and support for the communications capabilities of developing countries.
The General Assembly adopted two resolutions by consensus today, reaffirming by the first text the United Nations’ cooperation with the International Criminal Court, and by the second, defining the organizational contours of the third International Conference on Financing for Development, to be held in July in Addis Ababa.
Insufficient progress in combating the illegal drug trade called for a new global approach that moved beyond a heavy focus on prohibition and addressed consumption from a holistic public health perspective that placed individual human rights and well-being at its core, speakers said today in a General Assembly high-level debate devoted to the issue.
