The global backlash against women’s and girls’ rights has reached extreme proportions in certain countries, threatening to undo decades of progress, experts told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, as delegates underlined the need to transform structures of inequality and discrimination.
General Assembly President Philémon Yang (Cameroon) urged Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) delegates today to adopt a realistic, implementable budget for 2025 by year’s end, ideally well before the set deadline, and to plead with their respective capitals to pay their assessed contributions in full, on time and without conditions.
Highlighting persistent roadblocks and hindrances to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), speakers stressed the need to mitigate the devastating impacts of climate change, build economic resilience, boost financing and forgive crippling debt, as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) continued its general debate today.
The world is at a “delicate crossroads” with crises and conflicts raging in many regions,” General Assembly President Philémon Yang told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) during its wide-ranging debate, adding that the challenges before delegations is “immense”.
The security situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo remains alarming, with the 23 March Movement (M23) rebel group and other armed groups intensifying the conflict and deepening the humanitarian situation, the UN’s top official in the region informed the Security Council today.
The United Nations must listen to the people on the ground in the 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today from elected officials and petitioners from British Virgin Islands, French Polynesia, Gibraltar, New Caledonia, and Guam who detailed long years of colonial occupation as well as new horizons of progress.
Regional and global cooperation is essential to combating organized crime — from smuggling of firearms and narcotics in the Caribbean and wildlife trafficking in the Amazon to cyberscams in South-East Asia — delegates told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.
As the Sixth Committee (Legal) today concluded its debate on the topic of the protection of persons in the event of disasters, speakers shared their national practices in managing the aftermath of such events, with many calling for the International Law Commission’s draft articles to be used as guidelines, while others underscored the importance of an international legal document to expedite disaster aid and assistance.
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today tackled how — or even whether — to recalibrate the complex financial methodology used to determine how much money each Member State will contribute to the Organization’s regular and peacekeeping budgets.
Facing a cascade of climate disasters, conflicts and economic strains, the world is sliding backwards on poverty, hunger, gender equality and education — requiring immediate concerted action as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recede out of reach for developing countries - speakers stressed today as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) opened its annual general debate.
