Meetings Coverage

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of its First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), adopted 57 draft resolutions and three decisions today, including many aimed at reinvigorating multilateral efforts to curb the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, biological and conventional weapons in all corners of the world.

The General Assembly today adopted three resolutions on the culture of peace, highlighting the need to foster interreligious and cultural dialogue, temper social media and bolster education in efforts to prevent future clashes between and within societies.

The Security Council today encouraged Member States to comprehensively engage young people in fostering durable peace, building upon the initiative “Silencing the Guns in Africa by 2020” and on the Council’s 2 October debate on mobilizing young people towards that goal.

The Chair of the Security Council’s Sudan sanctions committee today described a much-improved security situation in Darfur — and a positive political trajectory across the country — while outlining efforts to better explain the scope and purpose of the sanctions in place against the country.

The Secretary-General is very concerned about developments on the Korean Peninsula, including the 28 November firing of two projectiles that marked the thirteenth launch of ballistic missiles by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 2019, a senior Secretariat official told the Security Council today.

While the General Assembly today adopted, without a vote, a draft resolution on global health and foreign policy that aims at strengthening health‑care systems, some delegations rejected language referring to reproductive rights, contending that abortion should not be recognized as a right, and called for a vote on two paragraphs.

The United Nations Controller and the Chairman of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) urged delegates today to accelerate their efforts to agree on a 2020 budget in order to prevent a shutdown of most global operations and avoid exacerbating the Organization’s ongoing liquidity crisis.

Briefing the Security Council today, officials of the mechanism created to finish the work of the international tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia requested both increased cooperation from Member States and adequate financial support to complete their judicial work during 2020.

The General Assembly today adopted two resolutions on the oceans and seas linked to implementation of the landmark 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, with speakers asserting during their annual debate that threats to the world’s marine ecosystem require firm political commitment and action.