As people feel “intense frustration and disillusionment” amid growing conflict and international economic uncertainties on the heels of a deadly global pandemic, revitalizing the work of the General Assembly — the most democratic body of the United Nations — is growing increasingly critical, its President said today.
The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) approved six draft resolutions today, all by recorded votes, relating to the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, as well as a decision regarding its programme of work, thus completing its work for the main part of the General Assembly’s seventy eighth session.
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today approved three resolutions, voting on two of them, including one demanding that Israel cease the exploitation, damage, cause of loss or depletion and endangerment of the natural resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and in the occupied Syrian Golan.
The General Assembly today elected five new judges for the International Court of Justice in The Hague to begin their term 6 February 2024, acting simultaneously but separately with the Security Council.
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered ongoing projects to improve working conditions and conference facilities at duty stations in New York and Nairobi while addressing the financial needs of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Unanimous in their support for the United Nations in attracting and retaining highly skilled and qualified personnel around the world, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today reviewed new and proposed changes to the compensation packages and policies aimed at boosting staff productivity, ensuring equitable geographical representation of the employee structure and justifying the confidence reposed in it.
Updating Member States on the status of adherence to the safeguards governing the management of nuclear weapons, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today briefed the General Assembly on IAEA’s work, including in Ukraine, Iran, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and elsewhere.
Approving one request for observer status and deferring nine others today, the Sixth Committee (Legal) also heard the oral reports of two Working Groups and took up its agenda item on revitalizing the General Assembly’s work, as several delegates suggested alternative working methods to rejuvenate stagnated discussions.
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved 12 draft resolutions today, covering issues that included the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights, imposition of unilateral coercive measures, rights of Indigenous Peoples, right to self-determination and right to food.
At a time of worsening conflict and alleged human rights and international law violations, the work of the International Court of Justice and the Human Rights Council has never been more important, Member States said today in the General Assembly as debates concluded for the session on the reports of the two bodies, with several speakers expressing distress over the situation in Gaza.
