Meetings Coverage

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, acting as a “constitution for the oceans”, guided every aspect of maritime affairs and set out a delicate balance of rights and duties, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today as the General Assembly celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the opening for signature of the nearly universal treaty.

The outgoing members of the Security Council — India, Germany, Portugal, Colombia and South Africa — delivered briefings this morning on the work of the subsidiary bodies they had chaired during their two-year tenure.

The General Assembly would urge donors to increase voluntary funding to the United Nations Environment Programme, including to the Environment Fund, according to one of eight draft resolutions that the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved today.

While generally lauding the aim of the United Nations initiative to expand the pool of civilian experts providing immediate aid to countries emerging from conflict, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning said the plan lacked specifics on its servicing and resource requirements, as well as performance and development benchmarks.

The President of the new global mechanism for criminal tribunals tasked with prosecuting war crimes committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s and the 1994 Rwanda genocide today told the Security Council that making criminal justice sustainable in the long run greatly depended on demonstrating that it could be efficient, effective and affordable for the international community.

As the international community considered responses to the multiple crises in Mali, including authorization of an African-led military force, Malians themselves needed to be at the centre of efforts to restore their democracy to health and fully recover their territory, the United Nations political affairs chief told the Security Council this morning.

The General Assembly would stress the need to increase the share of new and renewable sources of energy in the global mix as an important contribution to universal access to sustainable modern energy services, according to one of four draft resolutions that the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved by consensus today.

Yemenis had learned that the “gun as a tool to answer the legitimate aspirations has passed, and a peaceful solution can emerge from the ashes of conflict”, the United Nations top official in that country told the Security Council today in a briefing on recent developments.

Twenty-seven donors today announced contributions, or their intention to contribute, to the 2013 budget of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), as officials estimated that the chronically underfunded Agency would begin the year facing a deficit of some $69 million.

Opening its 2013 organizational session, the Disarmament Commission today elected its new Chair and decided to hold its 2013 substantive session from 1 to 19 April, which would kick off its next three-year cycle.