In recovering from economic downturns sparked by COVID‑19, warding off future calamities and meeting development targets, speakers urged nations to conserve resources and build resilience by closing wide inequities between countries, especially through debt forgiveness, as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) concluded its general debate today.
The world is at a point where cooperation and multilateralism must replace tensions and division, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs said today, as the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) convened the first of three virtual dialogues to be held during its seventy-sixth session.
Petitioners described human rights violations faced by women in Sahrawi refugee camps, as the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) continued its hearing of petitioners on the question of Western Sahara today in the context of its consideration of items related to decolonization.
Condemning the use of chemical and biological weapons as unacceptable under any context or circumstances, delegates urged all States to abide by critical existing international instruments for their regulation, as the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) continued its general debate today.
With their progress hindered by the climate crisis and the COVID‑19 pandemic, least developed countries aim to use an upcoming United Nations conference as a springboard to recover from their economic woes, echoed delegates as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) took up groups of countries and special situations today.
Amidst sharing lessons learned from counter-terrorism battles on old and new fronts, delegates, while noting that the vacuum created by the lack of a comprehensive convention was an overarching concern, cautioned against double standards and called for whole-society solutions, as the Sixth Committee (Legal) continued its debate on measures to eliminate international terrorism.
More than 8,400 children were killed or maimed in 2020, with Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and Somalia featured as the deadliest conflict zones for children, United Nations experts told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, as delegates pointed to war, disregard for international humanitarian law and the COVID-19 pandemic as persistent obstructions to the rights of minors.
Stressing that developed countries must ramp up global cooperation to close the world’s glaring economic gap, speakers focused on the need to tackle vaccine inequity, the ruinous effects of COVID‑19, climate change and implementation of development goals, as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) continued its general debate today.
Ethiopia is violating international law by expelling United Nations staff, Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council today, as the country’s representative vehemently rebutted the claim, stressing that the ousted individuals compromised their impartiality and integrity to the detriment of the host State.
Petitioners addressing the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) took a range of positions on the long‑standing question of Western Sahara today, with some decrying the situation as a “rationalization of colonialism”, even as others cited high turnout in a recent legislative election as evidence of the population’s willingness to take part in Morocco’s democratic processes.
