Meetings Coverage

As the First Committee today heard from a high-level panel of experts on the progress and impasses of the international disarmament machinery, delegates were told that the world must “put an end to nuclear testing before nuclear testing puts an end to the world”.

As the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia approached the completion of their mandates - and the twentieth anniversaries of their inception - it was now up to their smaller, leaner successor body to preserve the “new international culture of accountability” they had created, top officials from the courts said today as they briefed the General Assembly.

As the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia approached the completion of their mandates - and the twentieth anniversaries of their inception - it was now up to their smaller, leaner successor body to preserve the “new international culture of accountability” they had created, top officials from the courts said today as they briefed the General Assembly.

With the humanitarian crisis in Mali deteriorating rapidly, the Security Council today adopted a resolution demanding that all armed groups cease human rights abuses and violations of humanitarian law, including targeted attacks against civilians, sexual violence, the recruitment of child soldiers and forced displacements.

Affirming “considerable strides” in Haiti’s recovery from the 2010 earthquake, as well as noting continued concern over security and institutional reforms, the Security Council this afternoon extended until 15 October 2013 the mandate of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the country, known as MINUSTAH, while reducing deployment levels of uniformed personnel.

As a deep-seated desire for peace and democracy shapes a new world in the Mediterranean, it was vital to do away with cold war perspectives and consider the Western Sahara dispute with new eyes, Morocco’s representative told the Fourth Committee today as it concluded its debate on decolonization.

Arbitrary, unilateral sanctions infringed on development, violated human rights, defied the rule of law and harmed innocent people and States, delegates told the Sixth Committee (Legal), today, as it concluded its debate on the Special Committee on the Charter and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization and began consideration of criminal accountability of United Nations officials and experts on mission.

Efforts to bridge the security gap between those who had nuclear weapons and those who did not drew the attention of the Disarmament Committee today, as the non-nuclear-armed States reiterated their longstanding demand for legally binding assurances that those weapons would not be used against them, as a surer path to protection pending fulfilment of the goal of complete nuclear disarmament.

While giving clear auditing opinions for the 2010-2011 biennium to nearly all entities in the United Nations Systems, the Organization’s top auditing watchdog warned the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today of the weaknesses in governance found throughout the Organization.

With the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) wrestling today with ways to conclude the unfinished journey for 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories, it was told that the body tasked with completing the decolonization process — long championed as a United Nations success story — no longer had a relevant role with respect to the Overseas Territories of the United Kingdom.