General Assembly

The scope and application of universal jurisdiction must be clearly defined to avoid abuse of the principle, which could endanger international law, order and security, speakers told the Sixth Committee (Legal) today.

The Secretary-General’s synthesis report would launch negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda, delegates in the Second Committee (Economics and Finance) heard today as it began its discussion of sustainable development.

The development of new technologies of warfare, including autonomous weapons or ”killer robots” and cyberwarfare, raised fundamental concerns about the acceptability of allowing machines to independently take life-and-death decisions, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today.

As discussions begin shaping the post-2015 development agenda, women must have a strong presence to cement the intrinsic link between achieving gender equality worldwide and the global goals of sustainable development and eradication of poverty, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), heard today during the second day of its thematic debate.

The General Assembly should continue considering sustainable urbanization in the post-2015 agenda and promote it as a transformational force for achieving and advancing sustainable national development, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) heard today as delegates met to consider the implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and strengthening of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).

Reaffirming its commitment to eradicating the scourge of colonialism, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today concluded its annual consideration of the question of decolonization, and forwarded 11 draft resolutions to the General Assembly, six of which were approved without a vote.

Divergent views on the nature of its role and agenda emerged today, as the Sixth Committee (Legal) took up the work of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today examined the status of construction projects at the Economic Commission for Africa, as well as oversight issues across the United Nations system, including its exposure to fraud risks.

The youth of the United States were driving a change across the country that could, in the long term, alter its foreign policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said Noam Chomsky, international public intellectual and Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, today during a lecture to the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

There was “no good purpose for bad weapons”, heard the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today as a cross-section of non-nuclear-armed States called for greater global disarmament efforts.