General Assembly

The Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People issued the following statement today, 16 November:

Upholding its tradition of consensus, the Sixth (Legal) Committee concluded its current session by approving one request for observer status by the European Organization for Nuclear Research and 11 draft resolutions, including the text on the revitalization of the General Assembly.

The implementation delays and cost overruns surrounding the Secretariat’s efforts to carry out a major enterprise resource planning (ERP) project meant to streamline the administrative practices and boost efficiency of the United Nations were in the spotlight at today’s meeting of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary).

Fourth Committee concludes work with the approval of nine draft resolutions on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and Israeli practices, another on peacekeeping, and a draft decision on its work, forwarding a total of 28 texts to the General Assembly.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today approved a draft resolution that would have the General Assembly condemn all forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and call on States to fully implement the absolute, non-derogable prohibition of such abuse.

Determining whether migration was a positive or a negative phenomenon depended on how it was managed, Michelle Klein-Solomon, Permanent Observer of the International Organization for Migration, told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today as it a panel discussion on that subject.

Despite recognizing the need to make the Security Council more representative and fit to tackle complex global challenges, delegates remained divided on the future makeup of the 15-nation body, as the General Assembly today discussed the Council’s work and reforming its structure.

In its six years of existence, the Human Rights Council had successfully built on the strong desire of all Member States to address the root causes of human rights violations and raise awareness about them in a non-confrontational, consistent and coherent manner, but more funding was needed for its growing mandates, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told today.

Gathering in the General Assembly Hall today, delegates assessed the work of the Human Rights Council covering an ever-increasing array of topics that came under its purview, but with scant resources to address them all.

A total of 25 Member States pledged approximately $865 million today, during a Headquarters event in support of United Nations development activities for 2013.