General Assembly

The Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on Torture today proposed to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) a worldwide ban on the practice of prolonged solitary confinement, which had increased throughout the globe, especially in the context of the “war on terror” and “threats to national security”.

As the Sixth (Legal) Committee today considered the law of transboundary aquifers, delegates said that the elaboration of sound international principles that provide guidelines for the proper stewardship of cross-border aquifers was ever more relevant given the growing global demand for freshwater.

Broadening arms control, reducing surplus weapons stockpiles and increasing transparency over sales and transfers dominated debate in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today, as delegates sought to rally support around several draft resolutions aimed at staunching the flow of readily available, easy-to-use instruments of modern violence — conventional weapons.

There was no universal standard for the definition of long-term and other abusive forms of solitary confinement, but there was no doubt that it should be banned as torture, three human rights experts said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

Underscoring the “negative, even catastrophic impact” of extractive industries on the social, cultural and political rights of indigenous peoples, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today that the issue would be a major focus during his second mandated term which runs until May 2014.

After years of deliberation on the nationality of persons in the case of the “succession of States”, delegates of the Sixth Committee (Legal) urged that a decision finally be made as to what form draft articles relating to the issue should take.

With nearly 1.5 billion people still living in absolute poverty, eradication efforts had not succeeded and it remained the most significant challenge facing humankind, delegates in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) said today.

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard the introduction of six draft resolutions and two decisions today on a broad spectrum of concerns, from preventing an outer space arms race to strengthening the cornerstone disarmament conventions in the field of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, as it entered its third rigorous week of deliberations.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today directed its attention to a wide range of human resources management issues — from the geographical make-up of the Secretariat’s tens of thousands of staff to the ethical rules guiding the everyday decisions of employees at all levels — as Secretariat officials introduced more than a half dozen reports.

Ringing with expressions of support for the “timeless values” of the Olympic ideal, the General Assembly today adopted a consensus resolution –co-sponsored by a record 193 Member States – on the unique potential of sport to promote peace in an increasingly volatile world.