General Assembly

After three weeks of intensive deliberations, the Disarmament Commission had not succeeded in distinguishing its 2010 session from its previous meetings over the past 11 years, that body’s Chair said today as it concluded its annual substantive session.

The General Assembly, meeting today to act on a number of outstanding resolutions and make appointments to two of its subsidiary bodies, also paid solemn tribute to Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who was killed along with his wife and 94 others in a high-level military and civilian delegation, when the presidential plane crashed on landing outside the western Russian city of Smolensk.

The International Donors’ Conference “Towards a New Future for Haiti” raised almost $9.9 billion today in immediate and long-term assistance for the earthquake-devastated nation’s reconstruction, with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging “full and generous support” for the Haitian Government’s plan of action for recovery and development.

The General Assembly’s Special Committee on Decolonization approved today the partial composition of its official delegation to attend the 2010 Pacific Regional Seminar -- to be held in Nouméa, New Caledonia, from 18 to 20 May –- and endorsed the list of experts and non-governmental organizations that will be invited to the event.

Although speakers in the Disarmament Commission continued to stress the urgent need for nuclear disarmament, some speakers during today’s debate, which concluded the formal exchange of views for the session, drew attention to the scourge of small arms and light weapons ‑‑ the equivalent of “weapons of mass destruction” in Africa ‑‑ while others emphasized the need to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.

Saying it was aware of “significant flaws” in the United Nations Secretariat’s internal monitoring, inspection and accountability mechanisms, the General Assembly stressed, in a resolution it adopted today, the importance of promoting a culture of accountability, results-based management, enterprise risk management and internal controls at all levels.

Pointing to the “fresh and affirmative spirit of multilateralism” emerging in discussions on global disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, Sergio Duarte, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, called on the Disarmament Commission this morning as it opened its 2010 substantive session to reach consensus on creating a nuclear-weapon-free world, a new Disarmament Decade and practical confidence-building measures in the field of conventional arms.

The United Nations expert body monitoring worldwide implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights concluded its annual three-week session at Headquarters in New York today, having taken up the compliance reports of Argentina, Mexico, New Zealand and Uzbekistan.

Representatives of non-governmental organizations, activists and others attending today’s United Nations Meeting of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People in Vienna reported on actions taken against the wall built by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and especially around the village of Bil’in, highlighting the importance of the July 2004 advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice regarding the wall.

The Human Rights Committee today continued its read-through of its draft “general comment” on article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ‑‑ dealing with the right to freedom of opinion and expression ‑‑ approving language for two more sections in the “first reading” draft of the 54-paragraph text.