General Assembly

Hailing the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme as “too important to fail”, delegates in the General Assembly today praised the Process for having significantly reduced the scope of the conflict diamond trade, while expressing concern that a major civil society partner had pulled out of the United Nations-backed diamond industry initiative in 2011 to demonstrate lack of confidence.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this afternoon took stock of the financing needs of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI), delegates urged approval of the Secretary-General’s proposed amounts to keep that operation running until the end of next June.

The General Assembly today adopted 63 resolutions and 9 decisions recommended by its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), including a text that strongly condemned “continued grave and systematic” human rights violations in Syria and called for an immediate end to all violence in that country.

While agreeing that the current funding and backstopping arrangements for the United Nations special political missions were inadequate, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today argued over how to rectify that situation and offered diverging views on the Secretary-General’s proposals for doing so.

Against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world order, the United Nations must strengthen its role at the centre of global economic governance in order to maintain its incomparable legitimacy, many speakers said during a General Assembly meeting today.

Palestinian efforts for full membership of the United Nations and its agencies was not a provocation but rather the exercise of their legal right to sovereignty and independence, Riyad Mansour, head of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine, assured the Palestinian Rights Committee today.

Only by streamlining responses to the world’s complex humanitarian landscape would the needs of those affected by disasters and emergencies be met, speakers stressed today as the General Assembly adopted four resolutions relating to humanitarian assistance.

After months of collecting inputs and suggestions from countries, regional groups, civil society organizations and international organizations, United Nations Member States will meet 15‑16 December to discuss the structure and format of the outcome document that will be finalized by world leaders at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development — Rio+20 — to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012.

The Preparatory Committee for the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development today elected three members of its Bureau. Elected by acclamation were Kim Sook (Republic of Korea) from the Group of Asian States as Co‑Chair; and Bedrich Moldan (Czech Republic) from the Group of Eastern European States and Keith Christie (Canada) from the Group of Western European and Other States as Vice-Chairs.

Humanitarian assistance must be scaled up and made “smarter” as global emergencies continued to expand in both frequency and complexity, delegates in the General Assembly stressed today during their annual debate on the coordination of disaster relief efforts.