General Assembly

The General Assembly would urge that multilateral development banks continue to move forward on flexible, concessional, and fast-disbursing aid that would substantially and quickly assist developing countries, by terms of one of 16 draft resolutions the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved today by consensus.

The General Assembly today elected Jordan as a non-permanent member of the Security Council and appointed Morocco as a member of the Economic and Social Council’s Committee for Programme and Coordination.

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendations of its First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), adopted 53 texts today, reflecting both the common and divergent positions that had emerged during the session on such critical issues as nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, mainstreaming humanitarian concerns in that process, implementing the Arms Trade Treaty, and broadening the scope of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms.

Vanuatu and Equatorial Guinea were now poised to become middle-income countries, the General Assembly heard today as it unanimously adopted a draft resolution on graduation from the least developed category.

The General Assembly would stress the need to significantly reduce post-harvest and other food losses and waste throughout the food supply chain through increased promotion of appropriate harvesting practices, agro-food processing and appropriate facilities for the storage and packaging of food, according to one of seven draft resolutions that the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved today.

Appealing to the international community to confront a $65 million cash shortfall in its 2014 budget, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East today heard representatives of 17 countries pledge to provide voluntary contributions.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) concluded its work today, having approved 72 draft resolutions that are expected to be taken up by the General Assembly plenary next month.

The General Assembly would stress the need to increase investment in agriculture and rural development, including by giving technical and financial aid to least developed and net food-importing developing countries, with a view to increasing their agricultural productivity and infrastructure, according to one of two draft resolutions the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved by consensus today.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved 18 draft resolutions today, including one on “The right to privacy in the digital age”.