Meetings Coverage

The participation of all States was crucial in enabling the Human Rights Council to conduct a successful second cycle of assessing the human rights records of each country — a process known as the universal periodic review — that body’s President told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.

International financial stability was tied to the regulation of financial institutions so they did not accumulate too much risk, José Antonio Ocampo, Professor in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, today told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial).

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today discussed the conditions of service of United Nations staff worldwide, delegates differed over how to address growing compensation costs and the widening pay gap between the Organization’s employees and their counterparts elsewhere.

The Human Rights Council, in striving to overcome political positions and fine-tuning its working methods to broaden cooperation with all countries, had made significant inroads on issues worldwide, the President of that body told the General Assembly today after introducing its latest report.

Despite polarizing rhetoric and institutional inertia marring the political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the top United Nations official in the country told the Security Council today that it was critical to build on the post-war gains and ensure peace, stability and prosperity in the country through greater integration with Europe.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to 31 October 2014, requesting the African Union to increase the troop strength of that regional peacekeeping body from 17,731 to a maximum of 22,126 uniformed personnel as part of overall efforts to combat the increasingly asymmetrical tactics of Al-Shabaab rebels in the country.

Reaffirming its intention to keep implementation of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the situation there under close review and its readiness to consider the imposition of measures if any party failed significantly to meet its obligations, the Security Council today extended the European Union multinational stabilization force (EUFOR ALTHEA) for another 12 months.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved today a draft resolution on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and heard the introduction of 11 texts, most of them relating to the promotion and protection of human rights.

The General Assembly today elected 14 States to serve on the Human Rights Council, the United Nations body responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe.

The optimism stemming from the latest Middle East peace initiative had become fraught with dangers that could take it “back to square one”, the Fourth Committee heard today as it concluded its consideration of the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.