General Assembly

It was the “responsibility and privilege” of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations to bring the Organization’s highest ideals to the service of people who, having endured conflict and war, still fought to grasp the promise of peace, security and prosperity, said the new Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hervé Ladsous, addressing the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) for the first time in that capacity.

Urging States to fully ensure the right to health, the Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on that right called for decriminalizing the provision of information on sexual and reproductive health, the supply and use of all forms of contraception, and abortion today, as the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) began its second week of debate on the promotion and protection of human rights.

Before the Sixth Committee (Legal) began its annual review of the report of the International Law Commission today, its Chairman, Hernán Salinas Burgos (Chile), requested a moment of silence on the recent death of Justice Antonio Cassese.

A Nobel Laureate’s pessimistic appraisal of global economic prospects at Headquarters today included a warning that the current emphasis on austerity in policy responses to the world financial crisis was not only failing to solve its underlying causes but might actually amount to “economic suicide”.

Building confidence and meeting disarmament and non-proliferation goals via measures unique to regions would have a broader impact on international peace and security, delegates told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) during thematic debates on regional disarmament and on the disarmament machinery, which heard the introduction of seven draft resolutions, including divergent texts concerning the Conference on Disarmament.

The International Civil Service Commission’s attempts over the past year to streamline and improve the conditions of service for thousands of United Nations staff worldwide drew the ire of staff union representatives, as well as one of the Organization’s biggest financial contributors during today’s meeting of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary).

The General Assembly today elected 18 members of the Economic and Social Council to serve three-year terms beginning 1 January 2012.

An overhaul of inequitable agricultural business models was needed to reduce global poverty and ensure long-term sustainability for farmers and farm systems, said an independent United Nations food expert at a New York Headquarters press conference today.

The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, having served the vital function for the past 56 years of providing authoritative scientific review on the sources and effects of ionizing radiation, was ever more important as the use of radiation for peaceful purposes in the world was on the rise, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today as it met to consider the effects of atomic radiation.

Although xenophobic discourse had elevated the anti-immigration agenda in countries around the world, migration remained a common human endeavour and migrants’ rights were human rights, a top United Nations expert on those rights told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.