General Assembly

Although least developing countries were overwhelmingly dependent on trade as an engine of growth and development, they had enjoyed a mere 1.4 per cent share of global trade in 2011, India’s representative told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today, as it concluded its consideration of macroeconomic policy questions.

Widespread agreement was evident today in the First Committee on the need for arms restraint, but chronic ambivalence in policies aimed at promoting exports and transfers while preventing their diversion to illicit markets and protecting national interests stirred debate on finalization of an arms trade treaty whose text was already on the table.

Even as the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund posted near record assets of $44 billion as of this month, the increase in the Fund’s actuarial deficit drew the concerns of delegates at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) meeting today.

In a fast-changing media and communications environment, the Department of Public Information continued to find new ways to operate and adapt, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, told the Fourth Committee today, pledging to work with Member States to “project the common vision for the United Nations, its strength and its promise”.

The Special Rapporteur on Torture called on States in the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today to seriously reconsider whether the death penalty amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, or even torture.

Adverse imbalances in international trade were exacerbating the impacts of the global economic and financial crisis, especially for developing countries, Algeria’s representative said today, as the Second Committee took up macroeconomic policy questions.

Achieving space security and defusing the need for countries to weaponize outer space were issues of urgent priority, as an ever increasing number of space actors had made that environment vulnerable, and progress to fill in the gaps in space law was fragmented and only a prelude to what was needed, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today as it concluded its thematic debate on outer space and began its round on conventional weapons.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) discussed today the pattern of United Nations meetings and conferences, delegates lauded the Secretariat’s recent steps to release documents on time, use less paper and increase the use of the Organization’s meeting facilities.

Five years after adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples much progress had been made, but “we still have a long way to go in fully realizing” those rights — including through rights to land and participation in decisions that affected their lives, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told today.

As the nature of armed conflicts continued to transform, international humanitarian law should serve as the bedrock for protecting the victims of conflict and returning to peace, said Sixth Committee (Legal) delegates. In today’s debate on the Geneva Conventions and their Protocols, El Salvador’s representative said that international humanitarian law could no longer be an unattainable goal.