Meetings Coverage

Heralded in ancient times for its ability to bring warring parties together, modern sport could be a powerful enabler of sustainable development and a tool for empowering young people, the General Assembly heard this morning.

Speakers highlighted both the successes and serious issues related to implementation as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today examined progress over the past year in rolling out Umoja, the United Nations ambitious business management project.

Acknowledging the political agreement reached on 18 October in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Security Council remained concerned about the risk for destabilization of the country in the absence of a swift and consensual resolution to the current political crisis.

Following vetoes wielded by China and the Russian Federation, the Security Council today failed to adopt a draft resolution that would have had all parties in Syria end attacks on the city of Aleppo within 24 hours.  The proposed cessation of hostilities would have lasted at least one week and would have demanded immediate safe access to all areas for humanitarian assistance.

Following the recommendation of its First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), the General Assembly today adopted 68 draft resolutions and decisions, among them ones targeting the recent proliferation of banned weapons alongside the development of new and emerging threats.

A total of 20 donors today announced contributions, or their intention to contribute, to the 2017 budget of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), as officials urged stable financing for the Agency amid devastating conflicts and violence in the Middle East.

Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today criticized the Secretary-General’s budget outline for the biennium 2018‑2019 for what they viewed as a lack of strategic depth and clarity on estimated costs for several initiatives that had yet to be considered by the General Assembly.

While the world had seen sweeping changes in the decade since the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities — one of the most widely-ratified human rights instruments in history — speakers today told the General Assembly that more remained to be done to eradicate discrimination around the globe and even the playing field for persons with disabilities.

Liberia remained stable, but sustaining the progress it had made would require greater investment in the country’s security services as well as commensurate improvements in the justice and correction sectors, the head of United Nations peacekeeping told the Security Council today as it considered the situation in that country and the future of the mission deployed there.

The General Assembly would declare an International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, according to one of five draft resolutions approved by the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today.  It deferred action on three others.