General Assembly

Tackling seemingly intractable disarmament and non-proliferation problems with “virtually moribund” disarmament machinery signalled an urgent need to “breathe new life” into attempts to remove the roadblocks, said delegates today in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), concluding the general debate segment of the session.

Reiterating its conviction of the need for the eradication of colonialism, the Fourth Committee today concluded its annual consideration of the question of decolonization, and forwarded 11 draft resolutions to the General Assembly, six of them approved without a vote.

The need for amended national criminal codes to address domestic violence and the related crime of “femicide”, as well as calls for more women to participate in the political life, dominated discussion in the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, as it continued its general discussion on the advancement of women.

The highlight of its summer session had been the adoption of the Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration, stated Michael Schöll, Chair of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, as the Sixth Committee took up the Commission’s report.

Small arms and light weapons, cluster munitions, anti-personnel mines, booby traps and other explosive devices were “excessively injurious”, and the human cost of their cascading spread and use far outweighed their military significance, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today.

The ideal of a world where accountability was the expectation, and not the exception, had become a reality, despite challenges of arresting fugitives and staff retention, the General Assembly heard today as the Presidents of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals and the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and for Former Yugoslavia presented their annual reports.

Mutual benefits and responsibilities marked the relationship between administering Powers and their Territories, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) was told today as it heard from both sides of the decolonization coin with representatives of administering Powers and Non-Self-Governing Territories presenting their cases.

Persistent discrimination and violence against women and girls around the world called for gender equality and empowerment to be a stand-alone target in the post-2015 development agenda, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today, as it began its discussions on the advancement of women.

Concrete criteria were crucial to ensure fair and equitable geographic representation which would cement the credibility of the Security Council and the United Nations as a whole, said delegates in the Sixth Committee (Legal) as they began their general debate on the United Nations Charter and the role of the Organization.