General Assembly

A growing asymmetry in military capabilities between major Powers and medium and small States had further increased insecurity among States, and in crucial regions, the pursuit of “great power politics” had destabilized tenuous regional balance, Pakistan’s representative told the Disarmament Committee today.

The United Nations top management official told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today that the Organization was facing a “mixed” set of financial indicators for 2010, as an expected year-end positive cash position hinged on whether Member States paid their outstanding assessed contributions for the fourth quarter.

In three rounds of voting, the General Assembly today elected Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa as five non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms beginning on 1 January 2011.

With the prevalence of discrimination and violence against women rising around the world, all States must become parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and its Optional Protocol, to ensure the dignity and respect that women worldwide deserved, Zou Xiaoqiao, Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, stressed today.

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), guided by the fundamental and universal principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter, would have the General Assembly declare the period 2011-2020 as the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism, by one of 12 draft texts approved today, capping its general debate on decolonization.

Addressing Member States for the first time as head of the newly created UN Women, Under-Secretary-General Michelle Bachelet told delegates today that the establishment of the new entity was a message from the General Assembly that more needed to be done to make the empowerment of women a reality.

Delegates warmly praised three achievements of the last session of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) as the Sixth Committee (Legal) today considered the Commission’s report of the session, held in New York from 21 June to 9 July. The Chairperson of the Commission, Ricardo Sandoval López (Chile), said it was one of the most fruitful sessions he could recall over the past 20 years.

With developing countries having unfairly borne the brunt of the global economic and financial crisis while experiencing an effective worsening of their vulnerabilities, the international community must consider establishing a mechanism to help them overcome debt distress and achieve debt sustainability, several representatives stressed today, as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) began its consideration of macroeconomic policy questions.

Pending a negotiated prohibition on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons, controlling the fissile material holdings of key nuclear-weapon States, in a way that served the strategic interests of all concerned, would go far to curb nuclear weapons proliferation and prevent nuclear terrorism by non-State actors, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today, as it entered the second week of its general debate for the session.

Ion Botnaru, Director of the General Assembly and Economic and Social Council Affairs Division in the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, briefed correspondents today on the rules of procedure for tomorrow’s election of five non-permanent members of the Security Council.