General Assembly

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.

The comprehensive approach of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration remained the best way to effectively address financing for development, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) heard today.

Weapons of mass destruction dominated debate in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today, as delegations warned of their catastrophic potential, commending both the Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions for their achievements, while also warning that “real challenges and sobering realities” remained.

Emerging from the “Rio+20” with a reaffirmed mandate as one of the primary United Nations bodies responsible for sustainable development, the Economic and Social Council must be reinvigorated to play an active role in following up the outcomes of that summit and in setting the post-2015 development agenda, the General Assembly was told today as delegates gathered for their annual joint debate on the Council’s work.

A voluntary and comprehensive dispute resolution procedure, tailored to arbitrating disagreements over outer space activities, was taking shape, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) was told today as it concluded its annual debate on the realm’s peaceful uses, with delegates weighing in on how space technology could mitigate challenges that affected their nations and regions of the world.

In the developing world, some 25 million children below 5 years of age suffered from acute malnutrition, and as Governments intensified their efforts to keep them from dying of often-preventable causes, they needed a strengthened international partnership, delegates in the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) stressed today, as they wrapped up their discussion on the promotion and protection of children’s rights.

The Sixth Committee (Legal) met this morning to consider an oral report by the Coordinator of the informal consultations on the administration of justice at the United Nations. Thomas Fitschen (Germany) gave a comprehensive review of the informal meetings, held 15, 16 and 18 October. He noted that the Secretariat had already responded to a number of questions that had arisen during the consultations, thus allowing for the timely conclusion of work on the topic.

Affirming that eliminating nuclear weapons must be achieved by ensuring equal security for all States, Pakistan’s representative today told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) that the efforts of major nuclear-weapon States had focused mainly on areas where their own security would not be compromised, such as by eliminating biological and chemical weapons, or by banning nuclear tests and fissile material.