General Assembly

As the Sixth Committee (Legal) today addressed the organization of its work for 2009, and reviewed the new system of administering justice at the United Nations, which had been introduced earlier this year and was generally welcomed, concerns were expressed about certain structural details of the new system, which is now subject to formalization by the General Assembly.

As the international community struggled to recover from the global financial and economic recession, mitigate climate change, end poverty and stem the spread of the H1N1 virus, the United Nations was carrying out nine joint initiatives to respond to those and other crises, Deputy Secretary-General Asha‑Rose Migiro said today.

With some 23,000 nuclear weapons reportedly still in existence, thousands of missiles and bombers to deliver them, weapons of mass destruction treaties short of universal membership and a large and growing agenda for conventional arms control, it was very difficult to dispute that achievement of the disarmament goals remained “the burning problem of our time”, Sergio Duarte, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, told the Disarmament Committee.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up the scale for determining Member States’ dues to the Organization’s budget in 2010-2012, the delegates emphasized the importance of following the principle of capacity to pay as the fundamental criterion in the apportionment of the expenses of the United Nations and considered the main elements of the methodology used to calculate the assessments.

General Assembly President Ali Abdussalam Treki of Libya, in his first press conference since the close of the Assembly’s annual general debate earlier this week, said this year’s gathering, had drawn more than 100 world leaders who had demonstrated their sustained interest in the United Nations and a wide array of crucial issues ‑‑ from climate change to the financial crisis to human rights.

In a brief organizational meeting today, the Fourth Committee (Special, Political and Decolonization) approved its work programme for the current session, during which it planned to consider more than a dozen topics, ranging from the peaceful uses of outer space to the University of Peace and the decolonization of the remaining non-self-governing territories.

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), in a brief organizational meeting today, adopted its agenda and programme of work for the sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), during its organizational meeting this morning, agreed on its provisional programme of work for the first week of the sixty-fourth session, on the understanding that necessary adjustments would be made in the course of the session, as required.

No longer satisfied with a power balance that favoured the few but risked imperilling the many in another economic tailspin, world leaders addressing the General Assembly today appealed for a new brand of multilateralism that reflected developing nations’ concerns in global decision-making, as they wrapped up the annual general debate.

Concerned that the United Nations outdated structure left it ill-equipped to deal with twenty-first century realities, Government Ministers addressing the General Assembly today pressed the world body to revamp its institutions, extend its alliances and break old mindsets that had hampered its credibility as the world’s pre-eminent negotiating forum.