General Assembly

It was a conundrum that, while the international community professed a desire for greater progress on disarmament to secure a safer world, it allowed outdated mechanisms at the disposal of Member States to deliver stalemates instead of the advancement of that objective, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today as it continued its general debate.

While the United Nations had seen breakthroughs in its efforts to serve the poor and empower women, the Organization must harness its convening power to achieve a binding climate agreement, ensure respect for basic rights of self-determination and, above all, reform its key structures to reflect current geopolitical realities, General Assembly delegates stressed today as they considered the Secretary-General’s report on the work of the Organization.

Since the creation of the United Nations, 80 former colonies inhabited by some 750 million people had gained independence, yet, even with fewer than 2 million people living under colonial rule today, the decolonization process, plagued by lack of political will, remained incomplete, the Fourth Committee was told as it began its annual general debate on that issue.

Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, appealed to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) to put social integration and cohesion at the heart of its work, as it opened its session today with a debate on social development.

The Sixth Committee today adopted its programme of work, as orally amended, and decided to take up the item of Administration of Justice at the United Nations on the afternoon of Wednesday, 6 October, in order to give delegations time to informally discuss the issues and reports.

With the global economy fragile and on an uneven path to recovery, the world’s development needs, especially those of its most vulnerable people, must take centre stage in all fiscal policies and stimulus plans, Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, told the Second Committee today, as it began its annual general debate.

“If major steps forward in disarmament are postponed indefinitely, if questions persist of compliance with non-proliferation commitments, and if military spending continues to rise while Millennium Development Goals continue to be unmet, then our potential contributions will be correspondingly limited,” the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Sergio Duarte, warned the Disarmament Committee today, as it began its general debate.

Opening the second meeting of its sixty-fifth session with a discussion on the scale of assessments, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today heard delegates stress the need for all Member States to fulfil their legal obligations to the Organization by making their payments on time and in full.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People today adopted its annual draft report of its work, which welcomed renewed direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, and reiterated the body’s call on Israel to completely halt all settlement activity, including in East Jerusalem.

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) approved its agenda and work programme for the sixty-fifth General Assembly session at a brief organizational meeting today.