With its mandate up for renewal by the General Assembly, and demands for its services growing, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) urgently requires a substantial capital injection to lift it out of a chronic budget deficit, its head told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today.
Syria must fully and urgently cooperate with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to close all outstanding issues regarding its chemical weapons declarations, the detection of a Schedule 2 chemical at the Barzah facilities of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre in November 2018, and the unauthorized movement of the two cylinders related to the chemical weapon incident in Douma in April 2018, the United Nations disarmament chief told the Security Council today.
Revitalizing the work of the General Assembly is of crucial importance in the overall reform of the United Nations and strengthening of multilateralism, delegates stressed today, as the Assembly also proclaimed 18 November as World Day for the Prevention of and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Violence.
Delegates at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today urged the Assembly to deliver on the Secretary-General’s proposal to keep the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone running in 2023 with a $2.9 million subvention.
The world is “on the brink of a third world war”, the Chairman of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) said today upon conclusion of the body’s work for the session, reminding diplomats that they are, first and foremost, men and women of peace and pleading with them to “reignite the torch”.
Meeting concurrently with the Security Council, the General Assembly today elected one judge out of a pool of three candidates for the International Court of Justice in The Hague to serve a term beginning today, 4 November 2022, and ending 5 February 2027.
Acting without a vote, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) approved today a draft resolution on the United Nations’ special political missions as it held its general debate on that topic, with several speakers calling for them to be accorded their own budget.
The launch of an unprecedented number of missiles, including an intercontinental ballistic missile, on 2 and 3 November by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is reckless and a clear violation of Security Council resolutions, a United Nations senior political and peacebuilding official told the Security Council today, as members expressed alarm at the unabated flurry of missile activity from Pyongyang, as well as the Council’s continued inaction in face of such provocations.
In a half day of intense action, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved eight draft resolutions covering a range of human rights issues, from the right to literacy and protection of children from sexual exploitation to matters of crime prevention and criminal justice as well as efforts to combat the glorification of Nazism.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today sent the General Assembly six nominations — including Larbi Djacta (Algeria) as Chair — for the International Civil Service Commission, an independent body that regulates service conditions for thousands of staff throughout the United Nations common system, while delivering 22 additional recommendations for five other bodies, including the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ).
