Before commencing discussions on strengthening global coordination in humanitarian assistance and relief, the General Assembly adopted without a vote two resolutions today, with one commemorating 21 June as the International Day of Yoga and the other aimed at fortifying the role of the United Nations in guiding global health and foreign policy.
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) concluded its work today, approving eight draft resolutions, which were expected to be taken up by the General Assembly in the coming days ahead.
As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today scrutinized how exchange rate fluctuations and inflation had impacted the United Nations expenditures, developed nations pushed for reform of “recosting”, the method of factoring in those elements to subsequently revise an initial budget, while developing countries rejected any changes.
Highlighting the role of the Sixth Committee (Legal) in promoting justice and international law, the General Assembly today, without a vote, adopted 17 resolutions and took two decisions recommended in 19 reports from the Committee.
Delving into issues ranging from deep sea mining and continental shelf limits to pollution, piracy and plastic waste floating at the surface, the General Assembly today adopted, without a vote, a resolution on sustainable fisheries and deferred taking action on a draft text on oceans and the Law of the Sea, as more than 30 speakers and the heads of two of the world’s ocean and sea authorities weighed in on the instruments governing those domains.
Amid ongoing formulation of a blueprint for the post-2015 development agenda, diverse positions on aid, climate finance and sustainable development funding and strategies for optimizing relevant proposals emerged during today’s debate in the General Assembly on the report of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing.
The General Assembly would decide to establish an ad hoc committee to elaborate a multilateral legal framework for sovereign debt restructuring processes, according to the terms of one of six draft resolutions approved today by the Second Committee (Economic and Financial).
The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), today adopted 25 resolutions — 14 requiring recorded votes — and four decisions on an array of subjects spanning information, decolonization, the Middle East, special political missions, atomic radiation, and outer space.
With its approval today of a draft resolution on the United Nations pension system, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) asked the General Assembly to stress the need for United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund managers to address all the weaknesses in the system identified by the Board of Auditors.
Twenty six donors today announced contributions, or their intention to contribute, to the 2015 budget of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), as officials estimated that the chronically underfunded Agency would begin the year facing a $35 million deficit.
