General Assembly

The General Assembly today elected 15 States to serve on the Human Rights Council, the United Nations body responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide.

Marking the 150^th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, speakers in today’s Sixth Committee (Legal) debate urged Member States to ratify the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and relating to the protection of victims of armed conflicts, with the aim of strengthening international humanitarian law.

As the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met to consider poverty eradication today, the representative of Benin, on behalf of the Group of Least Developed Countries, told delegates that the United Nations should make it its “utmost priority” to help such countries to “bridge the capacity gap” in the face of the extreme challenges they faced.

With the Millennium Development Goals failing aboriginal peoples of the world, their knowledge and traditional practices must help to guide the post-2015 development agenda towards mapping a more inclusive, sustainable future, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today, as it began its general discussion on their rights, a month after the historic first World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.

Unrealistic calls for disarmament distracted from — and ignored — more achievable and sober efforts, a speaker told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today, urging members to acknowledge the “hard truth” that the final goal would not be realized overnight or in a single negotiation.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today approved the United Nations priorities for biennium 2016-2017 and began its examination of conference services, including the late issuance of documents and the status of equal treatment of the six official languages.

Sports could be a diplomatic bridge to peace and a vehicle for healing political and cultural rifts among communities, speakers told the General Assembly today as it reviewed progress in implementing its 2012 resolution on the potential of sport to be used as an educational and development tool.

The inability of the disarmament machinery to function had the “insidious effect” of stopping people from listening to each other, heard members of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) during its thematic debate on the United Nations disarmament machinery.

It was the world’s responsibility to ensure that the “fruits of the marvellous progress of science” benefitted the poor around the world, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard this morning.

Violence against society’s most vulnerable, in all its forms, needed to be uprooted and eradicated in order to pave a sure path towards sustainable development, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today as it continued its debate on the rights of children, and concluded its consideration of the advancement of women.