General Assembly

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved three draft resolutions today, including one on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, in a meeting marked by heated discussion.

The Palestinian Rights Committee today approved four draft resolutions relating to the question of Palestine, as it considered the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well as all violence against civilians, be they Palestinian or Israeli.

The United Nations regular budget for the biennium 2016-2017 would increase by almost $160 million, or 2.9 per cent, from the current two-year period, to reach a record $5.7 billion, primarily due to the need to support new special political missions, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) heard today.

The Meeting will be convened by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 21 November.

Differences on human rights issues should be resolved through constructive dialogue and not confrontational politically motivated actions, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today as it concluded its discussion on the Human Rights Report and took action on a package of draft resolutions on human rights questions and situations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Syria and Iran.

As part of the ongoing efforts to overhaul the management of the Organization’s global staff and produce a more efficient workforce, delegates of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today tackled a wide range of thorny issues from mobility to recruitment to performance management.

Recognizing the devastating impact of racism on people of African descent, the General Assembly today adopted, without a vote, a draft resolution on the programme of activities to implement the newly launched International Decade for People of African Descent, thus providing focus and synergy needed to address the matter globally.

Crises perpetrated by non-State actors put additional burden on the Human Rights Council’s agenda, that body’s President told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today as he presented his annual report.

As the General Assembly today took up the report of the Human Rights Council, nearly 30 delegations, the majority from developing countries, urged that body to guard against politicization of its work, with many calling for equal weight to be given to the right to development, as well as economic, social and cultural rights.

Concluding its sixty-ninth session, the Sixth Committee took action today on ten matters, and held to its tradition of approving texts and decisions without a vote, with the first of those a draft resolution on the report of the Committee on Relations with the Host Country.