Meetings Coverage

Barely seven weeks away from crucial referendums in Southern Sudan that will determine whether the country will split into two nations, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the Secretary-General’s request for $85.7 million for the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS), as it provides assistance in creating a safe, free and secure voting process.

Acting on the recommendations of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), the General Assembly today appointed officials to several of its subsidiary bodies for terms of office beginning on 1 January 2011, including its influential Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), which plays a crucial role in managing the United Nations vast human and financial resources.

Calling on all Bosnia and Herzegovina’s political leaders to refrain from divisive rhetoric and make further concrete and tangible progress towards European Union integration, the Security Council this afternoon authorized for another year, until 18 November 2011, the European Union Stabilization Force (EUFOR) mandated to ensure continued compliance with the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended fighting in the country in 1995.

Draft resolutions that would have the General Assembly address the human rights situations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Iran and Myanmar were approved by the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, but not before delegations debated the validity of such country-specific motions.

The General Assembly would demand that Israel stop exploiting, damaging, depleting or endangering natural resources in occupied Arab lands, by the terms of one of five draft resolutions approved today by its Second Committee (Economic and Financial).

Emphasizing that the situation in Sudan represented one of the most urgent challenges facing the Security Council, the 15-member body, convening at the ministerial level, underlined today that full and timely implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), including the holding of referenda on the self-determination of Southern Sudan and the status of Abyei, was essential to national as well as regional peace and stability.

Concerned about the extreme social and economic disadvantages that indigenous peoples have faced, the Third Committee approved a draft resolution today that would have the General Assembly organize a high-level plenary meeting in 2014 — to be known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in 2014 -- to share perspectives and best practices on the realization of indigenous peoples’ rights.

Even though it suffered its first actuarial setback in 14 years during the biennium that closed in December 2009, the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund bounced back from the turmoil in global financial markets to post a 32.2 per cent jump in assets to $38.3 billion by March 2010, Secretariat officials told the Fifth Committee today.

The Peacebuilding Commission and the Government of Liberia set forth this morning the terms of their partnership to strengthen the rule of law, support security-sector reform and promote national reconciliation as the West African nation sought to consolidate peace and heal the historic rift between indigenous and “American” Liberians.

The General Assembly, gravely concerned by the critical humanitarian situation and socio-economic conditions of the Palestine refugees in the Gaza Strip, and underlining the importance of emergency assistance and urgent reconstruction efforts, would decide to extend the mandate of UNRWA until 30 June 2014, by one of nine draft texts approved today by the Fourth Committee, as it concluded the bulk of its work for the main part of the session.