Meetings Coverage

To tackle the challenges posed by a constantly evolving global communications environment, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Kiyo Akasaka, today told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) that the Department of Public Information was applying a strategic approach, upgrading operational infrastructure, and adopting new information and communications technologies.

More than a quarter century after its adoption, the objectives of the Convention against Torture had yet to be achieved, and the entire human rights treaty body system was slowed under a backlog of reports from Member States, the Third Committee was told today. The Committee began its discussion on human rights by focusing on international efforts to prevent the use of torture, in the absence of the Special Rapporteur on the issue, who was unable to be present due to other commitments.

Whether an international convention was — or was not — needed on the issue of State responsibility for internationally wrongful acts was the crux of deliberation today as the Sixth Committee met to discuss the annual report of the Secretary-General on the subject.

The patchwork of national and regional controls over the conventional weapons trade lacked the global support needed to reduce the millions of arms currently in circulation, delegates heard today in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), along with the introduction of two draft resolutions aimed at countering that deficit.

Ahead of a debate on the Middle East that heard from some 40 speakers today, a top United Nations political official told the Security Council that, despite the impasse in direct peace talks, the international community must remain committed to the goal of an agreement on core issues within a year.

The implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples should not be obscured by a discussion about whether or not it is a legally binding document and should be regarded as a “political, moral and legal imperative” without qualification, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told today, as it began its discussion of indigenous issues and the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People.

The Sixth Committee (Legal) today took up and completed its current consideration of two items, one relating to the safeguarding of diplomatic and consular premises and the other relating to the report of the Special Committee on the Charter. It also concluded current debate on the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions.

Given the myriad challenges still facing least developed countries, small island developing States, and landlocked developing countries due to multi-dimensional global crises, the international community must work to establish a new, targeted and action-oriented programme of action at the Fourth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries next May, several speakers stressed today.

Asserting that the “high priests of disarmament are quite content with the status quo”, Pakistan’s representative told the First Committee that “the deafening silence surrounding the real priorities is pierced by a cacophony about the imaginary malaise of the Conference on Disarmament”.

During a day of lively and wide-ranging discussion on the significance of sport as a driving force for peace and development, and intercultural dialogue as a tool to ensure respect and the equal dignity of all cultures, the General Assembly adopted a consensus resolution recognizing the potential of sport to help attain the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and foster an atmosphere of tolerance.