General Assembly

States would better serve their societies -- particularly vulnerable groups like women, the extreme poor and trafficked persons -- if they took a human rights-based approach in designing and implementing social, economic and cultural policies, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told today as it rounded out its first week of discussions on the promotion and protection of human rights.

As the Sixth Committee considered reports of its Working Groups on terrorism and criminal liability today, it took actions recommending that observer status in the work of the General Assembly be granted to three organizations.

In a world where 1 billion people already suffered from chronic hunger, global food supplies must increase by 50 per cent to meet expected demand from a growing world population, the United States delegate told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today, as the Committee concluded its consideration of agriculture development and food security.

The barriers blocking disarmament negotiations were beginning to come down, a clear sign of which had been the agreement last May in the Geneva Conference on Disarmament of a programme of work, after a decade-long impasse, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning recommended that the General Assembly endorse the recommendations of the Board of Auditors on the financial report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the year ended 31 December 2008, for which the Board had issued a qualified audit opinion this year, with three emphases of matter.

As the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) concluded its general debate on the peaceful uses of outer space this afternoon, delegates greeted the increase in the number of countries focusing on outer space issues, affirming space technologies as of “inestimable value” to the Earth’s population, but warned at the same time of the danger of its militarization.

Continuing its wide-ranging discussion on the promotion and protection of human rights, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved six draft resolutions on a range of social-economic issues, including one that would have the General Assembly proclaim 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives.

Five days after celebrating the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, the international community still had a long way to go to erase the vast socio-economic inequities that existed from Argentina to Zimbabwe, several speakers told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today, as it began its consideration of the eradication of poverty and other development issues.

Peace and security could only be achieved with strong regional action and strict compliance with existing arms agreements, otherwise the present arms races would erect stumbling blocks along the road to stability around the world, the Disarmament Committee heard today, concluding its thematic debate on regional disarmament and security, with the introduction of eight related draft resolutions, and opening its discussion on the disarmament machinery.

The human rights situation in Myanmar remained alarming, with a pattern of widespread and systematic violations that prevailing impunity allowed to continue, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar said today.