As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up the topic of “accountability” in its review of the Organization’s efficiency in administrative and financial functioning, delegates welcomed continuing progress and pointed to gaps needing to be addressed.
Despite gains made since the 1995 adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action for Women, a renewed commitment to eliminating inequality was vital to reaching sustainable development goals, senior Government and United Nations officials said as they opened today’s General Assembly thematic debate aimed at inspiring women’s advancement in the run-up to agreement on a post-2015 agenda.
The Security Council, recognizing in the current circumstances the need for a short extension of the mandate of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), did so for a further two weeks, until 31 March.
The General Assembly today adopted a resolution encouraging relevant stakeholders to strengthen their efforts to promote peace, human rights, democracy, respect for religious and cultural diversity, and justice through education.
The Economic and Social Council today filled outstanding vacancies on the Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission and the Executive Board of the World Food Programme (WFP).
Libya could not allow the political crisis and armed conflict that had gripped the country for much of the past year to fester, the United Nations’ senior official there told the Security Council today, stressing that unless leaders acted “quickly and decisively”, the risks to national unity and territorial integrity were imminent.
The Security Council today, determining that the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their delivery means remained a threat to international peace and security, agreed to extend for 13 months the mandate of the Panel of Experts that assists the Sanctions Committee on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Applauding the start of construction last month of a new facility for the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in the United Republic of Tanzania, Stephen Cutts, Assistant Secretary-General of the Office of Central Support Services, Department of Management, told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) “this is a momentous achievement in the project, and is the result of successfully meeting all planned milestones due to date”.
The Security Council today created a system to impose sanctions on those blocking peace in South Sudan, with some members cautioning that such moves could derail Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) negotiations aimed at securing a deal by 5 March, and others expressing hope they would pressure rival leaders into ending the bloodshed that had plunged the United Nations’ newest country into civil war for more than a year.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened the first part of its resumed sixty-ninth session today with a review of its 2015 work programme and organization of work, the programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015 on programme criticality of safety and security, and of the role of the Joint Inspection Unit.
