Meetings Coverage

Recognizing the potential of sport to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, the General Assembly today adopted a resolution reaffirming that sport, among other things, contributed to an atmosphere of tolerance and understanding, and was a tool for education that could promote cooperation, solidarity, social inclusion and health.

Strong Security Council support for a new phase of genuine dialogue in Kosovo was needed in order to ensure that both sides could firmly seize the opportunity to build a stable future, the top United Nations official there said today as he delivered a briefing on recent events.

Following the Gaza escalation, which last week brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the “brink of a crisis that could have engulfed the region”, it was more vital than ever not only to bring a sustainable end to violence, but to achieve a fair and lasting peace, the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative told the Security Council this morning.

The General Assembly would strongly condemn the continued widespread and systematic gross human rights violations by Syrian authorities and call on that Government to immediately end all such abuses and attacks against civilians, protect its population and fully comply with its obligations under international law, under the terms of a resolution approved today by the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).

With Afghanistan facing a critical juncture in its modern history — the expected pullout of international security forces by 2014 — the international community must stand beside the war-torn central Asian nation and help to usher in a decade “marked less by aid and more by trade”, said General Assembly delegates today as they adopted a consensus resolution affirming their continued support for the country’s peace, reconciliation and development processes.

In the fifth annual debate on the working methods of the Security Council today, speakers acknowledged progress towards more transparency and efficiency in the operations of the 15-member body, while calling for more meaningful engagement between it and the wider United Nations membership.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today approved its first ever draft resolution aimed at ending the practice of female genital mutilation, concluding a determined effort by African States and praised as historic by delegations.

Well aware of the financial constraints faced by the United Nations and its Member States, the Chairman of the International Civil Service Commission today handed the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) a series of recommendations which, if approved, would impact the salary and working conditions of the Organization’s employees around the globe.

Resuming its 2012 substantive session today, the Economic and Social Council adopted three draft resolutions and three draft decisions in addition to filling vacancies in a number of its subsidiary bodies, having deferred several elections from previous sessions.

Warmly welcoming the ceasefire declared between Israel and Hamas just hours before, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this afternoon told the Security Council via video link from Tel Aviv, Israel, that it was now critical to address underlying causes in order to keep the violence, and the great suffering it caused civilians, from flaring up again.