General Assembly

The Disarmament Commission, in an organizational meeting this morning, elected the Chair for its 2015 substantive session and reviewed its agenda at the start of a new three-year cycle, which would be held from 6 to 24 April.

The General Assembly today set out a road map for the process of intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda, adopting without a vote a draft decision on that matter.

Facing unparalleled global pressures, with a rising Ebola virus death toll, rampant extremism that was escalating “terror to a new era and a new level” and unwilling refugees fleeing elevated sea-levels, the international community must tackle those formidable challenges with a sense of resolve and resilience, General Assembly President Sam Kutesa (Uganda) said at the opening of the sixty-ninth session of the 193-nation organ.

After days of protracted negotiations, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today wrapped up the main part of its sixty-ninth session that aimed to address, among other things, a range of contentious human resource issues and concerns about the surging cost of the Organization’s special political missions.

Taking up the reports of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this evening, the 193-member General Assembly adopted a wide range of texts, including 16 resolutions and two draft decisions that, among other things, revised upwards the 2014-2015 biennium budget, and addressed the United Nations common system, human resources management and financing for peacekeeping operations.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this afternoon decided to suspend its final meeting — during which it would be expected to take action on all outstanding matters and conclude the main part of its sixty-ninth session — until further notice.

The General Assembly, in a late-day meeting, decided, in line with a proposal put forth by the body’s Vice-President, to extend the work of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) until Wednesday, 31 December.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) heard the introduction this afternoon of draft texts on the terms governing entitlements for United Nations employees, as well as the annual budget recosting exercise and the Organization’s programme priorities for the 2016-2017 period.

The General Assembly today, nearing completion of its work for the main part of the session, adopted three draft texts on international tribunals and on bolstering emergency humanitarian response.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of its Second Committee (Economic and Financial), today adopted 38 resolutions — seven requiring recorded votes — and five decisions on a range of issues relating to strengthening the post-2015 agenda.  Those included external debt, creation of a new international economic order, the multidimensional nature of development and poverty, South-South cooperation, liberalization of world trade, promotion of new and renewable sources of energy, and problems of countries in special situations.