General Assembly

From the reintegration of child soldiers to rural schools-on-wheels and the daily recital of a national pledge, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told today of the many ways in which Member States have been promoting and protecting the rights of children, in light of their respective socio-economic and cultural situations.

As the Sixth Committee began its deliberations on the status of the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and relating to the protection of victims of armed conflicts, delegates expressed grave concerns about the accountability of Member States and urged greater compliance to all provisions in the Conventions and Additional Protocols.

After the 2015 target year for realizing the Millennium Development Goals, global policymakers should consider replacing the current economic categories of countries by classifying them in a manner more appropriately reflecting their socio-economic situations and challenges, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today.

Joining forces to reduce nuclear arsenals, keeping promises, declaring zones free of nuclear weapons, stemming proliferation, abandoning the rationale for nuclear weapons retention and abolishing them were among the calls to action in five draft resolutions tabled today as the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) concluded its thematic debate on nuclear weapons.

Delegations in the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), before concluding their consideration of the peaceful uses of outer space, weighed the strength of existing international space law to prevent the militarization of outer space and to respond to other current challenges, such as the use of nuclear power sources in outer space and the threat of space debris.

Taking action for the first time during its current session, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today approved a text recommending to the General Assembly the adoption of a resolution setting out United Nations standards for the treatment of women prisoners and non-custodial measures for women offenders, also known as the “Bangkok Rules”.

Despite encouraging progress in strengthening the financing for development follow-up process, more must be done to ensure full implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration, delegates in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) emphasized today.

A multilateral agreement on nuclear weapons would reflect the belief that such an instrument could prevent the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons and create a climate for negotiating a ban on the use of nuclear weapons and help diminish their role, said India’s representative in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today, upon the introduction of three draft resolutions.

In the wake of the General Assembly’s renewed commitment to galvanizing political momentum towards implementation of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, it was crucial for international partners to cooperate on redressing the ills of the world’s most strife-ridden continent, said delegates gathered today for their annual joint debate on development in Africa.