General Assembly

The General Assembly today elected four judges from an initial pool of eight candidates to the International Court of Justice for terms of nine years beginning 6 February 2012. A fifth vacancy remained open following seven rounds of voting. The Assembly sent three current judges, Hisashi Owada (Japan), Xue Hanqin (China) and Peter Tomka (Slovakia) back to their posts in The Hague by re-electing them, while choosing a single new justice, Giorgio Gaja (Italy).

The Sixth Committee (Legal) today ended its current discussion on the report of the Working Group on “measures to eliminate international terrorism”, and took action on five draft resolutions on different topics. Delegates reviewed procedural methods for the Committee’s work and criteria for consideration of future requests for observer status in the work of the General Assembly.

Calling for an end to the stalemate in intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council reform, delegates in the General Assembly today urged action on the matter, as they concluded their annual debate on the subject. Assembly members wanted the Council — which had not been reformed in half a century — to better reflect present day geopolitical realities and the rapidly evolving challenges that the United Nations faced in the twenty-first century.

Both parties in the Israeli‑Palestinian conflict must summon the necessary courage to take bold decisions to achieve peace for all inhabitants of the Middle East, for “if the door to peace closes, it would be very hard to reopen”, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today.

Recognizing that young people in all countries are a major human resource for development and key agents for social change, economic development and technological innovation, the General Assembly would affirm, by a text approved today by the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), that investment in youth development and education was crucial for sustainable, social and economic development.

Calling for expansion of the Security Council and effective negotiations on Council reform, as well as greater input from non-members and transparency in reporting on its deliberations, the General Assembly in two meetings today took up the Council’s annual report and began its debate on reform of that 15-nation body.

Twenty Member States pledged approximately $265 million today at an event in support of United Nations development activities for 2012. Opening the 2011 Pledging Conference, Navid Hanif, Acting Director of the Office of Economic and Social Council Support and Coordination in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, noted that the ever-deepening global economic and financial crisis was taking a heavy toll on human development and risked rolling back decades of gains.

The opportunity for Israeli‑Palestinian peace was “slipping away” and all efforts must be exerted to achieve a final peace settlement, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today as it began its consideration of the work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.

As the Sixth Committee (Legal) today concluded its debate on the report of the International Law Commission, delegates commended the Commission for its productive session, and offered closing remarks and concerns for the future work of the Commission and work of the Committee, which, it was said, could successfully transform outstanding topics into productive “legal tools” for the international community.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today moved to fill upcoming vacancies on the Board of Auditors, the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, and four other bodies that help it manage the Organization’s vast human resources and keep its financial house in order.