Meetings Coverage

The General Assembly met today to elect members of the International Law Commission, the United Nations organ tasked with the progressive development of international law and its codification.

Amid a persistently unstable security situation punctuated by alarming terrorist attacks, troops deployed to combat violent extremism in the Sahel region need more predictable funding and broader international support, the United Nations senior peace operations official told the Security Council today.

The Security Council today decided to extend the mandate of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) until 15 November 2022, outlining a range of mandated tasks from civilian protection to the promotion and protection of human rights.

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today approved 14 draft resolutions concerning decolonization, as well as another on assistance in mine action and a decision on the body’s future programme of work, as members completed their work for the main part of the General Assembly’s seventy‑sixth session.

The General Assembly, acting without a vote, today adopted a resolution that called upon all States not yet signed onto the Rome Statute ‑ the international treaty that created the International Criminal Court at a conference in Rome in 1998 ‑ to contemplate joining the 123 States parties that have already ratified the accord.

After deferring observer status requests to the seventy‑seventh session, delegates in the Sixth Committee (Legal) today, in the debate on revitalizing the work of the General Assembly, stressed the need to strengthen the Committee’s prized tradition of consensus by including substantive discussions and constructive dialogue.

With the Committee for Programme and Coordination unable to reach consensus and recommend the approval of programme plans in 2021, delegates in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today exchanged differing views on the role of their Committee in addressing programme planning, following the General Assembly’s decision to allocate that agenda item to all its Main Committees and the Plenary.

Delegates today stressed the importance of the International Criminal Court executing its mandate in an impartial manner, as the Court’s President updated the General Assembly on its caseload and judgements over the past year.

Female police officers are instrumental to the United Nations’ flagship initiative to strengthen the effectiveness of its peace operations, the Security Council heard today, as speakers discussed more gender-responsive policing and how to increase the deployment of women on the ground.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved 11 draft resolutions today, covering issues that included the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights, the situation of women and girls in rural areas, and the imposition of unilateral coercive measures.