Meetings Coverage

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s political leaders faced an increasingly stark choice, the United Nations High Representative in that country told the Security Council today, stressing that they could either “fail together” by remaining mired in disagreements or “succeed together” by reaching healthy compromises and standing firm against those who sought to reopen wounds of the past.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today scrutinized the Secretariat’s various reports on cross-cutting aspects of United Nations peacekeeping operations and their support account, most delegates hailed progress made towards stamping out sexual abuse by peacekeepers and implementing the Global Field Support Strategy, but offered divergent views on the peacekeeping budget proposed for the July 2013 to June 2014 period.

Given its transnational nature, combating the scourge of human trafficking required utmost international cooperation and coordination, several speakers said in the General Assembly today as it continued its high-level meeting on the appraisal of the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons.

An “arc of instability” was stretching across Africa’s Sahara and Sahel region, and if left unchecked, it could transform the continent into a breeding ground for extremists and a launch pad for larger-scale terrorist attacks around the world, delegates in the Security Council stressed today during a high-level debate on combating that growing scourge across the region.

Human trafficking was a “vicious chain that binds victims to criminals”, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today during the General Assembly’s high-level meeting on the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons.

The international community could end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition sustainably by 2025 through holistic and “win-win” sustainable agriculture approaches, the head of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said this morning.

While concerted multilateral action was needed to root out barbarous terrorist attacks from Boston to Karachi, the United Nations counter-terrorism machinery was only as good as “the sum of its parts”, the Security Council was told this morning as it reviewed the work of its three anti-terrorism Committees.

The United Nations financial situation “was healthy” at the end of 2012 thanks to the efforts of many Member States and continued to depend on those States meeting their monetary obligations “in full and on time”, the Organization’s top management official told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning.

Acting on the recommendation of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), the General Assembly this morning decided to adjust for the first time in a decade reimbursement rates to countries contributing troops to United Nations peacekeeping operations as part of a broad package to create a credible, predictable and equitable reimbursement system.

The formidable social, economic and security challenges facing Guinea-Bissau following its May 2012 coup d’état were not insurmountable, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council today, stressing that they must be tackled through a two-phase process: a return to constitutional order through year-end elections and a post-electoral strengthening of State bodies through adequately financed reforms.